BERLIN: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will resume talks with United States President Donald Trump’s envoys in Berlin on Monday (Dec 15), after the US side said a “lot of progress” had been made on ending Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.
Zelenskyy will again meet US envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner after five hours of talks on Sunday, with other European leaders also holding meetings in the German capital throughout the day.
Ukraine said on Sunday it was willing to drop its ambition to join the NATO alliance in exchange for Western security guarantees. But it was not immediately clear how far talks had progressed on that or other vital issues, such as the future of Ukrainian territory, and how much the talks in Berlin could persuade Russia to agree to a ceasefire.
EUROPEAN DIPLOMACY FACES CRUCIAL WEEK
The talks come at the start of a pivotal week for Europe, with a European Union summit on Thursday set to decide whether it can underwrite a massive loan to Ukraine with frozen Russian central bank assets.
Europe has come under fire from the Trump administration in recent weeks over its policies on migration, security and regulating big tech. The EU and national governments have struggled to find a unified response to the US criticism.
EU foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels on Monday to agree on new sanctions against Russia, although the possibility of an 11th-hour hitch to agreeing on an EU trade deal with Latin America threatens to further undermine their attempts to put on a show of strength.
“We will continue to do everything we can to ensure that Ukraine can achieve the best possible negotiating position and, in the event of failure, that it has all the necessary means to retaliate against this war of aggression,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told Deutschlandfunk radio.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who has been closely involved in the Ukraine talks and was meeting Zelenskyy on Monday morning ahead of the US negotiations, sounded a tentatively hopeful note.
“I think we are at a critical moment in negotiations for peace,” he told Dutch TV programme Buitenhof broadcast on Sunday.
“And at the same time, we’re probably closer to a peace agreement than we have been at any time during these four years,” said Stubb, who also met Kushner in Berlin on Sunday evening.
