Zelensky has met with Trump representatives in Berlin to continue negotiating a peace deal
According to preliminary reports, Ukraine would be prepared to remain unincorporated into NATO if Russia provided security guarantees that would prevent further attacks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met this Sunday in Berlin with representatives of US President Donald Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and his special envoy for peace missions, Steve Witkoff, to negotiate the 20-point ceasefire plan and the security guarantees he demands from the US.
The Ukrainian president arrived at Berlin airport around 12:00 p.m. and then met with his team, led by National Security and Defence Council Secretary Rustem Umerov and Chief of Staff Andri Gnatov, and had a telephone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Three hours later he arrived at the German Foreign Ministry, where he was received by the head of government, Friedrich Merz. As he did with Kushner and Witkoff, Zelensky greeted Trump's special envoy with a hug and shook his son-in-law's hand.
Zelenski has stated that Trump wants to achieve "full consensus" on the peace plan before Christmas, but Russia has already said that it does not accept the changes made by Europe and Kiev to Trump's initial draft of 28 points. "If these changes are made, we will have serious objections," said Kremlin international policy adviser Yuri Ushakov on Russian public television.
One of the changes in Kiev puts the number of Ukrainian Army soldiers at 800,000 instead of the 600 000 in the first draft of the United States.
Zelenski also wants to give priority to security guarantees. He wants these guarantees to be binding so that Russia does not invade the country for the third time without effect, as happened in 2014 and four years ago.
The President of Ukraine believes that the "real" guarantee to prevent a further Russian invasion would be Ukraine 's accession to NATO, and he would like to leave the door at least half open to that possibility. But he has said that, as this will not happen immediately, the US would accept a series of "Article 5" guarantees of the NATO Treaty in mutual defence.
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