Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday voiced readiness to drop his country’s bid to join NATO in exchange for Western security guarantees, but rejected the U.S. push for ceding territory to Russia as he held talks with U.S. envoys on ending the war.
Zelenskyy sat down with U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The Ukrainian leader posted pictures of the negotiating table with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz sitting next to him facing the U.S. delegation.
Responding to journalists’ questions in audio clips on a WhatsApp group chat before the talks, Zelenskyy said that since the U.S. and some European nations had rejected Ukraine’s push to join NATO, Kyiv expects the West to offer a set of guarantees similar to those offered to the alliance members.
If the US is untrustworthy then so is NATO. The US accounts for two thirds of NATO’s defense spending and the bulk of NATO’s high‑end capabilities (strategic airlift, nuclear deterrence, advanced fighter fleets, and extensive overseas basing) are provided by the United States.
If the European component of NATO were as capable or financially solvent, the situation in Ukraine would be very different right now. Instead they are desperately trying to meet the 5% of GDP defense spending target to maintain US engagement while appropriating Russian frozen assets to divert to Ukraine, which implies a less than solid footing both militaristically and financially.