The US has indicated that security guarantees will only be promised to Ukraine if it agrees to hand over territory in the Donbas to Russia, according to a report.
White House officials reportedly told Volodymyr Zelensky that security guarantees would only be given if an agreement is reached to give Moscow control over the entire region in eastern Ukraine. – a red line for Kiev.
Sources close to the discussions said Financial times that the Trump administration would provide additional weapons to strengthen the Ukrainian army in the event of a peace deal if Kiev withdraws its troops from the region. Mr. Zelensky has repeatedly stated that Ukraine will not give up occupied land without a referendum on territory.
European and Ukrainian officials see Washington’s position as an attempt to pressure Kiev to agree to a deal, raising doubts about whether the White House is willing to make binding security commitments.
Anna Kelly, the White House deputy press secretary, described the situation FT report as “a lie” and said Washington was simply trying to bring the two sides closer to an agreement.
She suggested that the sources who briefed the newspaper were trying to undermine the peace process after “historic” trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi.The independent has contacted the White House for further comment.
The talks took place behind closed doors and marked the first time officials from the US, Russia and Ukraine have sat in the same room for peace talks since the invasion began in February 2022.
Officials involved in the talks told the Kyiv post that both sides had held discussions on key issues such as territory and the future of the Russian-occupied nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia, which went beyond ‘maximalist’ public statements by either side.
A US official told the newspaper that both sides are “testing how flexible each other’s red lines really are.” The talks will resume on Sunday.
Andrii Sybiha, the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs, said in an interview with European truth published on Tuesday that there had been a “qualitative change” in the peace talks, especially among the participants in the Russian delegation.
“These are different people, and there were no more pseudo-historical lectures. The conversations were very focused,” he said.
Moscow’s delegation was previously led by Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to Vladimir Putin who was notorious for engaging in long historical discussions during the talks. It is now led by General Igor Kostyukov, the director of Russia’s GRU military intelligence service.
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