US reportedly tells Ukraine to withdraw from Donetsk region for peace deal

BERLIN - US negotiators have told Ukraine during peace talks in Berlin that it must agree to withdraw forces from the eastern Donetsk region under any deal to end the nearly four-year-old war with Russia, an official familiar with the matter said.

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity as

Ukrainian and US negotiators wrapped up a second day of critical talks

in the German capital, said Kyiv wanted further discussions. A second person familiar with the talks acknowledged there were still major obstacles to overcome to reach a deal on territory.

Calling the issue of territorial concessions “painful”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters later: “Frankly speaking, we still have different positions.” But he said he believed US mediators would help find a compromise.

Kyiv’s negotiators will continue consultations with US counterparts, he said, adding that Ukraine needed a concrete understanding on security guarantees, including the monitoring of a ceasefire, before making any decisions to do with the war’s front lines.

“I do not think that the (US) has demanded anything,” Mr Zelensky said.

“I see us as strategic partners, so I would say that we have heard about the issue of territories in relation to Russia’s vision or Russia’s demands from the (US) We see this as demands from the Russian Federation.”

US officials told reporters by conference call they had secured agreement on 90 per cent of the issues. Though longstanding territorial issues remain, one said, “we’ve got multiple different solutions to bridge the gap that we are suggesting to them”.

Ukraine has said previously it would not cede territory to Russia, which has taken almost 20 per cent of the country in its east and south since its full-scale February 2022 invasion.

A European source briefed on the latest talks said Russia had not yet budged on its territorial demands. “The atmosphere is good but the goals remain quite far apart on the core.”

Ukraine under Trump pressure to make concessions

Mr Zelensky has been holding talks in Berlin with US envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner as well as European leaders.

Kyiv is under intense pressure from Mr Trump to make concessions to Russia to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two. Ukrainian officials have maintained an upbeat tone in public comments.

“Over the past two days, Ukrainian-US negotiations have been constructive and productive, with real progress achieved,” Mr Rustem Umerov, secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, wrote on X earlier on Dec 15.

“The American team led by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are working extremely constructively to help Ukraine find a way to a peace agreement that lasts.”

A US official told reporters later that, under the deal being discussed in Berlin, Ukraine would receive security guarantees similar to those provided in Article 5 of the NATO treaty, which requires the alliance to come to the defence of any member that comes under attack.

Another US official said Russia was open to Ukraine joining the European Union and that Mr Trump wanted to prevent Russia from encroaching further westwards in Europe.

One official said security guarantees, including deconfliction and oversight of any deal, were the major focus of Dec 15’s talks and that an

Article 5-like guarantee

was something Mr Trump believed he could get Moscow to accept.

Next steps would be taken up with Mr Zelensky at dinner on the evening of Dec 15 with Mr Trump putting in a call.

Working groups are expected to meet in the US during the coming weekend, possibly in Miami, one of the officials said.

Territory, NATO membership among top issues in talks

Ukraine said on Dec 14 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.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia’s demand that Ukraine not join NATO was a fundamental question in talks on a possible peace settlement. He said Russia expected an update from the US after the negotiations in Berlin.

Russia claims to have annexed Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region comprising Donetsk and Luhansk as well as three other regions including Crimea, something Kyiv and its European allies say is unacceptable. Russian forces do not fully control all the territory that Moscow claims, including about 20 per cent of Donetsk.

For Zelensky, concessions unpopular at home

Mr Zelensky is treading a difficult line between appearing flexible and reasonable to the Trump administration while also not making concessions that the Ukrainian people would reject.

Underscoring the challenge he faces, a poll published on Dec 15 showed three-quarters of Ukrainians reject major concessions in any peace deal.

The poll, by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, found that 72 per cent of Ukrainians were prepared for a deal that froze the current front line and contained some compromises.

However, 75 per cent believed a Russia-friendly plan that included Ukraine ceding more territory or capping the size of its army without receiving clear security guarantees was “completely unacceptable”.

“If security guarantees are not unambiguous and binding... Ukrainians will not trust them, and this will affect the general readiness to approve the corresponding peace plan,” wrote KIIS executive director Anton Hrushetskyi.

European diplomacy faces crucial week

Dec 15’s talks come at the start of a pivotal week for Europe, with an EU summit on Dec 18 set to decide whether it can underwrite a massive loan to Ukraine with frozen Russian central bank assets.

Europe has come under fire from Washington over its policies on migration, security and regulating big tech. The European Union and national governments have struggled to find a unified response to the US criticism.

EU foreign ministers met in Brussels on Dec 15 to agree new sanctions targeting the Russian shadow fleet of oil tankers. REUTERS