Trump claims Ukraine peace deal is closer than ever
Donald Trump (photo: Getty Images)
US President Donald Trump said that the parties are now closer to peace in Ukraine than ever before. He believes that things are going well and that the war will ultimately be brought to an end, according to a White House broadcast.
In particular, Trump took part in a medal ceremony in the Oval Office, but began his remarks by speaking about the current efforts to end the war.
“I think we are closer now, and they will tell you that we are closer now than we have ever been. We had a very good conversation one hour ago with European leaders. Many of them over the war with Russia and Ukraine. In a long discussion cyst things are seemingly going well. We are getting closer, we are having tremendous support from European leaders that want to get ended also,” Trump said.
He added that things are going fairly well and noted that both Russia and Ukraine want peace. At the same time, the head of the White House explained where the difficulties arise.
“At this moment, Russia wants to get it, but they will want to get it ended, and all of a sudden they want, and Ukraine will want to get ended, and all of a sudden they won't. We have to get them on the same page,” Trump concluded.
Ukraine–US negotiations on a peace plan
On December 14 and 15, negotiations took place in Berlin between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, as well as the US President’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. In addition, there were meetings with European leaders.
According to the Wall Street Journal, during the negotiations between the Ukrainian and US delegations on December 14, the American representatives did not demonstrate readiness for compromises and insisted on concluding a peace agreement as soon as possible. The White House would like to achieve this by the end of the year.
As AFP writes, the key point of disagreement was the territorial issue. In particular, the US insisted that Ukraine give up Donbas, namely by withdrawing troops from the Donetsk region. Zelenskyy rejected this approach, noting that a ceasefire could be possible without territorial concessions.
At the same time, an unnamed US official said that about 90% of the issues had already been agreed upon during these negotiations. He added that Trump was satisfied with the results.
Additionally, the Wall Street Journal reported that the US is offering Ukraine legally binding security guarantees similar to NATO’s Article 5. Washington promises Kyiv protection from any aggression to break the deadlock in the negotiations.
