“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.
