Zürcher Nachrichten - Europe proposes Ukraine peace force as Zelensky hails 'real progress' with US

The force would be part of "robust security guarantees" for Ukraine from the United States and European powers aimed at guaranteeing that Russia would not violate an agreement to end the war, the leaders meeting in Berlin said in a joint statement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier that talks in the German capital with US President Donald Trump's envoys on ending the war with Russia were "not easy" but brought "real progress" on the question of security guarantees.

Zelensky met for a second day with Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner for talks aimed at ending the war that started with Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion, building on a proposal initially put forward by Trump.

He hailed new security guarantees offered by Washington but also said differences remained on the question of what territories Ukraine would have to cede to battlefield enemy Russia.

"There has been sufficient dialogue on the territory, and I think that, frankly speaking, we still have different positions," Zelensky told reporters.

An upbeat German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the talks had created the "chance for a real peace process" and praised the US for offering "substantial" security guarantees.

From Washington, Trump said he would hold a phone call later Monday with Zelensky and the European leaders, among them UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron.

The United States said it had offered strong, NATO-like security guarantees to Ukraine and voiced confidence that Russia would accept, in what Washington said would be a breakthrough in ending the war.

- 'Very strong deterrence' -

US officials described the hours of talks in Berlin as positive and said Trump in his call would seek to push forward the deal.

The US officials warned Ukraine must accept the deal, which they said would provide security guarantees in line with NATO's Article Five -- which calls an attack on one ally an attack on all.

"The basis of that agreement is basically to have really, really strong guarantees -- Article Five-like -- also a very, very strong deterrence" in the size of Ukraine's military, a US official said on condition of anonymity.

"Those guarantees will not be on the table forever. Those guarantees are on the table right now if there's a conclusion that's reached in a good way," he said.

Trump has previously ruled out a formal entry of Ukraine into NATO and sided with Russia in calling Kyiv's aspirations to the alliance a reason for the full-scale invasion by Moscow.

Merz said any ceasefire must be "secured by substantial legal and material security guarantees from the United States and Europe, which the United States has put on the table here in Berlin in terms of legal and material guarantees".

"This is truly remarkable. This is a very important step forward, which I very much welcome," he said.

- 'Criminal attack' -

Zelensky said of the talks with the US side that "these conversations are always not easy" but that it had been "a productive conversation".

An official briefed on the US-Ukrainian talks earlier told AFP that US negotiators still want Ukraine to cede control of the eastern Donbas -- made up of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

Moscow controls almost all of Lugansk and about 80 percent of the Donetsk region, according to the US-based Institute for the Study of War.

Russian President Vladimir Putin "wants territory", said the official, adding that the United States was demanding that Ukraine "withdraw" from the regions and that Kyiv was refusing.

One of the US officials acknowledged that there was no agreement on territory.

Trump has called it inevitable that Ukraine would need to surrender territory to Russia, an outcome unacceptable to Zelensky.

Russia, meanwhile, has signalled it will insist on its core demands, including on territory and on Ukraine never joining NATO.

Moscow has also previously objected to any European-led force in Ukraine to police a peace agreement.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Russia was expecting the United States to "provide us with the concept that is being discussed in Berlin today".

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F.Schneider--NZN