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.
They were never given security guarantees, they were given security assurances, which is kind of the issue that led to this. Granted all geopolitics is down to the whims of leaders upholding agreements, but on paper a security guarantee is near automatic cobeligeration with the defending party while a security assurance is in no way as heavy handed. I would say that the Ukrainian goal is to have an agreement that will give them dependable allies in a future conflict.