Ukraine says US pledged Congress to back security guarantee

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he has an agreement with the U.S. to make security guarantees legally binding through a vote in Congress as part of a deal to end Russia’s war.

He offered no details in online audio comments to Ukrainian media late Monday. The disclosure came hours after a U.S. official said President Donald Trump’s administration had offered strong “Article 5-like” security guarantees to Ukraine in the latest negotiations, a reference to NATO’s mutual-defense clause.

Two days of talks in Berlin underscored what looked to be fresh momentum in Trump-brokered efforts to end Russia’s nearly four-year war, with U.S. and European officials offering upbeat assessments. But with negotiations weighed down by until-now intractable questions over territory and security guarantees, attention is shifting to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s response, with little indication he’s ready to end his attacks.

“It would be almost a miracle if the Russian side would not now find reasons to yet again say no,” Wolfgang Ischinger, a German diplomat who heads the Munich Security Conference, told Bloomberg Television.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, for his part, said he’s “very much confident” the war is nearing an end. Still, he told ABC News in an interview that Moscow’s territorial demands remain unchanged — and ruled out the deployment of NATO troops to Ukraine under a peace accord.

“I’m pretty sure we’re on the verge of resolving this terrible crisis,” Ryabkov said, without elaborating. “We are prepared to have a deal, to use the word of President Trump, and my hope, keep fingers crossed, would be that it comes sooner rather than later.”

Zelenskyy said he expects the U.S. to consult next with Russia, while Ukrainian negotiators may return to the U.S. for weekend talks. He may meet Trump when they “get nearer” to the final draft of a peace deal, he said.

“Before taking any steps on the battlefield, the military and the civilian population should have a clear understanding of what the security guarantees will be,” Zelenskyy said in a post on Telegram. “We are currently working to formalize all of this. And we have made progress there.”

Trump told reporters a negotiated end to the war was “closer than” ever and that the U.S. was working with Europe on security guarantees, though he also appeared to suggest that Ukraine ought to give up land to Russia as part of the deal. “They’ve already lost the territory, to be honest,” he said at the White House.

Zelenskyy, who’s visiting the Netherlands on Tuesday, said there’s no consensus yet at the negotiations on the question of territory and a referendum to decide the issue hasn’t been discussed. He urged the U.S. to continue mediating on the “painful” subject.

The U.S. official said Trump was not trying to pressure Ukraine, but added that they had provided Zelenskyy with some “thought provoking” ideas about land.

Berlin meeting

European leaders from 10 states who gathered in Berlin for talks hosted by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz issued a statement late Monday pledging to send a multinational force to Ukraine to help rebuild its military and protect its airspace and seas after a peace deal has been agreed.

Ukraine’s peacetime army should be 800,000-strong to “deter conflict,” according to the statement. A U.S.-led ceasefire monitoring and verification mechanism would provide early warning of any attack, while a “deconfliction mechanism” would work to avert conflict, according to the statement. It didn’t elaborate on the details.

The leaders also offered “a legally binding commitment” to take measures to restore Ukraine’s security in the event of a future Russian attack. They appeared to stop short of a mutual-defense guarantee, though, saying the security measures “may include armed force, intelligence and logistical assistance, economic and diplomatic actions.”

Ukraine’s wartime allies have for months discussed “Article 5-like” guarantees that would stop short of envisaging the country’s entry into NATO, a red line for Russia. The offer has been championed by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Oana Lungescu, a fellow at the London-based think-tank RUSI and a former NATO spokeswoman, voiced skepticism, saying the guarantee appears vague — and cast doubt on whether such a scheme would work without the full backing of NATO.

“If this ‘Article 5-like’ guarantee is tested and found wanting, it would affect the real Article 5 even more,” Lungescu said.

Still, the leaders and European Union officials hailed “significant progress” in Trump’s efforts to end the war. Merz called the U.S. offer of security guarantees “remarkable” and said reaching a peace deal by Christmas “now depends entirely on the Russian side.”

Putin has given no sign so far that he’s willing to compromise on his demands for Ukraine to surrender large areas of the country’s east and south, including territory that his forces have sought and failed to occupy for more than a decade.

Russia has also rejected the presence of any troops from NATO countries in Ukraine, warning that they’ll be regarded as targets. It’s demanding strict limits on the size of Ukraine’s military.

Trump replied “yes” when asked by a reporter at the White House if he’d spoken to Putin recently, without elaborating. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin last spoke with Trump on Oct. 16, the Tass news service reported.

U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, held five hours of talks with Putin at the Kremlin on Dec. 2. They also led the U.S. delegation at the Berlin talks.

“I actually think that President Putin wants to see it end,” Trump said. “We’ve had good talks with Russia and I think they’d like to get back to a more normal way of life.”

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—With assistance from Daryna Krasnolutska, Aliaksandr Kudrytski, Andrea Palasciano and Francine Lacqua.