Ukraine Insists on Binding Security Guarantees as Talks With U.S. and Europe Intensify

Ukraine has accelerated talks with the United States and European partners but major questions remain about which countries would provide what kinds of security guarantees and for how long. President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine will not lay down its arms without firm, clearly defined guarantees, citing past failures of vague assurances such as the Budapest Memorandum.

A recent draft peace plan, developed mainly by Ukraine and the United States, proposes Article 5–like guarantees from the United States, NATO and European states, funding to keep Ukraine’s army at a peacetime strength of 800,000, European military support, EU membership and a bilateral security agreement with the United States voted on by Congress.

European national security advisers met in Kyiv on Saturday to try to fill in details of the draft, with President Trump saying Europe should take the lead and his special envoy joining remotely. Mr. Zelensky wrote that "everything must be effective, dignified, and conducive to establishing peace for decades." Ukraine wants concrete, legally binding commitments that would make allies willing to come to its defense; some European countries have said they would be willing to deploy forces as part of a Coalition of the Willing of about 30 states.

Mr. Zelensky has also sought a precise date for EU entry, a demand the bloc has yet to address. Terms of a bilateral U.S. security deal remain unsettled. Mr. Zelensky said Mr.

Key Topics

World, Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, Donald Trump, Nato, Budapest Memorandum