A brief overview of the situation
The US government is increasing the pace of Ukrainian diplomacy
Meet here, meet there – US President Trump argues that ending the war can happen quickly. Ukraine’s European supporters demand immediate clarity on security guarantees.
The US continues to put pressure on negotiations to end the war in Ukraine and seeks rapid progress. There are only a few controversial points left, President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. In the hope that the plan could be finalized, he instructed his negotiators to immediately meet with Russian and Ukrainian representatives at the same time.
According to Trump, his special envoy Steve Witkoff is scheduled to speak with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow “probably next week,” while US Defense Secretary Daniel Driscoll, acting as negotiator, will meet with the Ukrainian side. Trump later said on a flight to Florida that he had “not set a timeline” for reaching a deal. At the same time, Republican Witkoff defended himself against accusations — also leveled vigorously within the president’s party — that he acted too friendly toward Russia and thereby disqualified himself as a negotiator.
Critics criticized the initial 28-point US peace plan – which Trump said was only conceived as a “concept”, although he initially urged Ukraine to accept it by Thursday – as a one-sided “Russian wish list”, also because Ukraine had been pressured into making unacceptable territorial concessions.
Trump now rejects accusations of surrendering territory. “Ultimately, this is territory that Russia could conquer in the next few months,” he said aboard the presidential plane Air Force One. Development “only moves in one direction” – by which he means: in favor of Russia. However, Moscow will also make concessions, namely “stop fighting and not conquer any more territory”.
Europe wants an agreement with the US on security guarantees
Ukraine’s supporters in the West, appalled by Washington’s draft agreement, now want to get reliable security guarantees for Ukraine as quickly as possible, something they missed in the original version. This was announced by the chairman of the Coalition of the Will after a joint meeting, as the federal government announced in the evening.
The heads of state and government have agreed with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to “accelerate cooperation with the US to advance the security guarantee plan,” he said. Lasting peace must be supported by strong and credible security guarantees to deter future Russian aggression.
The proposals discussed in recent days relate specifically to how Ukraine can be protected from Russian military consolidation, rearming and preparing for another attack after the war ends. However, little has been published regarding the specific forms of these security precautions.
How much do the US and Ukraine agree?
“It is in our common interest that security is real,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening video message on Tuesday. He did not comment on details of talks on a peace plan held with America in Geneva at the weekend. However, we continued working on the draft text on Tuesday. “The principles of this document can be further developed into the basis of a comprehensive agreement,” Zelensky said.
According to information from the White House and Kiev, both sides agreed on a common position to which Moscow must then respond. “There are some complicated but not insurmountable details that need to be clarified and require further discussion between Ukraine, Russia and the US,” Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt wrote on the social network X.
Just details or crucial questions left unanswered?
It is unclear whether the main question behind these “details” is how to deal with Ukraine’s loss of territory. The country, which was attacked for violating international law by neighboring Russia in February 2022, has so far refused to cede any territory to the attacker. The large concessions that Ukraine requested in the initial US plan raise questions about how important the form of an acceptable deal to Kiev will be to the US government.
According to media reports, another conversation took place on Tuesday in the Persian Gulf: There, the US delegation met with Russian representatives in Abu Dhabi.
Today, the foreign ministers of the EU countries want to discuss the latest developments via video link this morning. One question is how the EU can prevent Ukraine from being forced by the US to make excessive concessions to Russia. European countries see a major risk that the security situation could worsen if the aggressor emerges from the conflict as the victor – and thus are encouraged to continue breaking international law in the future if the Kremlin expects this to be an advantage.
Trump talks about meeting with Zelensky and Putin
Trump promised a meeting with Putin and Zelensky – “but ONLY if a deal to end this war is FINAL or occurs domestically,” he wrote in Truth Social. Trump did not say whether he would like to meet with them in groups of two or three.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned against excessive expectations for the rapid implementation of America’s peace plan. “It contains some strong elements, but also some difficult elements that require more hard work and negotiations,” Rutte told the German editorial network (RND) and Spanish newspaper “El Pais”. “We are still far from achieving our goal towards peace.”
dpa
