The United States is offering Ukraine security guarantees for a period of 15 years as part of a proposed peace plan, Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky says, though he says he'd prefer a commitment of up to 50 years to deter Russia from further attempts to seize land by force.
US President Donald Trump hosted Zelensky at his Florida resort yesterday and insisted that Ukraine and Russia are “closer than ever before” to a peace settlement.
Negotiators are still searching for a breakthrough on key issues, however, including whose forces withdraw from where in Ukraine and the fate of Ukraine's Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, one of the 10 biggest in the world. Trump noted that the months-long US-led negotiations could still collapse.
“Without security guarantees, realistically, this war will not end,” Zelensky told reporters in voice messages responding to questions sent via a WhatsApp chat.
Ukraine has been fighting Russia since 2014, when it illegally annexed Crimea and Moscow-backed separatists took up arms in the Donbas, a vital industrial region in eastern Ukraine.
Details of the security guarantees have not become public but Zelensky said Monday they include how a peace deal would be monitored as well as the “presence” of partners.
He didn’t elaborate, but Russia has said it won’t accept the deployment in Ukraine of troops from NATO countries.
Russia claims its forces are advancing
As indications suggest negotiations could come to a head in January, before the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-blown invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday claimed that Russian troops are advancing in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine and are also pressing their offensive in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.
Putin has sought to portray himself as negotiating from a position of strength as Ukrainian forces strain to keep back the bigger Russian army.
He also emphasised at a meeting with senior military officers the need to create military buffer zones along the Russian border.
“This is a very important task as it ensures the security of Russia’s border regions,” Putin said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that Putin and Trump were expected to speak in the near future but there was no indication the Russian leader would speak to Zelensky.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Kyiv’s allies will meet in Paris in early January to “finalise each country’s concrete contributions” to the security guarantees.
Trump said he would consider extending US security guarantees for Ukraine beyond 15 years, according to Zelensky. The guarantees would be approved by the US Congress as well as by parliaments in other countries involved in overseeing any settlement, he said.
Zelensky said he wants the 20-point peace plan under discussion to be approved by Ukrainians in a national referendum.
However, holding a ballot requires a ceasefire of at least 60 days, and Moscow has shown no willingness for a truce without a full settlement.
Ukrainians doubt Putin's sincerity
On the snowy streets of Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, people were sceptical about the chances of peace.
One military veteran who uses the call sign Sensei, in keeping with the rules of the Ukrainian military, said Putin’s record in power shows he can’t be trusted.
Sensei joined the military in 2022 and was wounded that year during the battle for the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
Now, he said, almost nobody from his company is still alive.
“But all these sacrifices, they are not in vain, because we need to prove ... that we exist, that we are, that we have the right to our existence, to our territory, to our culture, to our language,” the 65-year-old told The Associated Press.
Denys Shpylovyi, a 20-year-old student who was home for the holidays, said Trump’s willingness to accept Putin’s arguments has put Zelensky in a difficult situation.
“But I’m thankful for some progress. They are speaking, and maybe someday there will be hope,” he said.
Oleh Saakian, a Ukrainian political scientist, said it was a good sign that the Zelensky is managing to build a relationship with Trump, although he noted that “nothing has been adopted yet, nothing has been signed yet.”
“I don’t see these negotiations bringing us closer to real peace, because they are based on equality between the aggressor and the victim, they are based on complete disregard for international law, and … disregard for European security,” he said.
Russia claims Ukraine attacked Putin's residence
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Ukraine launched an attack on Putin’s residence in the northwestern Novgorod region overnight from Sunday to Monday using 91 long-range drones.
Zelensky said the claim was “another lie” and came about because Moscow is unnerved by progress in peace efforts.
Lavrov said all the drones were destroyed and there were no casualties or damage. He didn’t say whether Putin was at his residence at the time. He said that Russia already has designated “the timing and facilities” for a retaliatory strike but didn’t elaborate.
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