Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced Ukraine's readiness to abandon its membership in NATO in exchange for legally binding security guarantees from the United States, similar to NATO Article 5, as well as from European countries. He added that "it is already a compromise on our part."
Zelenskyy said this in response to a question from journalists in a WhatsApp chat, Reuters reports.
It is noted that on the eve of the talks, Zelenskyy offered to abandon Ukraine's goal of joining NATO in exchange for Western security guarantees.
On December 12, Axios cited sources as saying that the United States was ready to provide Ukraine with legally binding security guarantees similar to Article 5 of NATO as part of a potential peace deal.
"From the very beginning, Ukraine's desire was to join NATO, these are real security guarantees. Some partners from the U.S. and Europe did not support this direction. Thus, today, bilateral security guarantees between Ukraine and the U.S., Article 5-like guarantees for us from the U.S., and security guarantees from European colleagues, as well as other countries — Canada, Japan — are an opportunity to prevent another Russian invasion," Zelenskyy said in response to journalists' questions in a WhatsApp chat.
The President of Ukraine added that "it is already a compromise on our part." He also emphasized that security guarantees should be legally binding.
The newspaper noted that this is exactly what russian dictator vladimir putin has repeatedly demanded from Ukraine - a rejection of NATO. Moscow has also stated that Ukraine should be a neutral country and that NATO troops cannot be deployed on its territory.
In addition, russian sources said earlier that putin wants a "written" promise from leading Western powers not to expand the US-led NATO alliance to the east, which is a shortened version of the official exclusion of Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and other former Soviet republics.
It should be noted that following the talks in Berlin between American and Ukrainian representatives, US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff announced that significant progress had been made. The talks will continue in the morning of December 15.
Earlier, the White House said that US President Donald Trump was "extremely disappointed" with both sides of the russian-Ukrainian war. They also did not give a definite answer whether the US would send a representative to meet with Ukraine and Europe, because Trump "does not want more talk, he wants action."
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, the President released photos of greetings from US delegates in Berlin. Zelenskyy greeted and hugged US Presidential Special Envoy Steve Witkoff warmly, and was more reserved with Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.
On the eve of the meeting, Zelenskyy compared the process of ending the war to "running a long distance," emphasizing Ukraine's readiness for "Plan B".
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