The administration of Donald Trump is once again putting pressure on Kyiv, seeking to link the provision of security guarantees to Ukraine’s agreement to hand over to Russia parts of the Donbas that have not been captured, the Financial Times reports. Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelensky wants to receive guarantees first — which he said were “100% agreed” after meeting Trump in Davos last week — before discussing territorial issues.
In Washington, Kyiv has been told that US security guarantees depend on whether Ukraine first agrees to sign a peace deal that is likely to include concessions over the Donbas, according to eight people familiar with the negotiations cited by the FT. Two of them said that as an additional incentive, the US also offered Ukraine more weapons to equip its army in the post-war period. Ukrainian and European officials described Washington’s attempt to tie security commitments to a deal with Russia as an effort to force Kyiv into painful territorial concessions that Moscow itself has no intention of making.
According to a senior Ukrainian official, it is becoming increasingly unclear whether the US will assume any commitments at all. “They stop every time it comes to signing security guarantees,” he said.
The Americans are “using guarantees… to push Ukraine” into concessions that, in their view, could “force Russia to sit down at the negotiating table,” the official added.
White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said that claims the US is trying to condition security guarantees on Ukraine making territorial concessions are not true. “The only role of the United States in the peace process is to bring both sides together to reach an agreement. It is unfortunate that the Financial Times allows malicious actors to anonymously spread falsehoods in order to derail a peace process that is in excellent shape following the historic trilateral meeting in Abu Dhabi this past weekend,” she added.
Washington “is not trying to impose any territorial concessions on Ukraine,” a source familiar with the US position told the newspaper.
The US said that security guarantees depend on both sides agreeing to a peace deal, but that the content of such a deal depends on Russia and Ukraine.
At the same time, Washington is exerting no pressure on Moscow, which continues to insist that the Ukrainian army hand over territories containing medium-sized and large cities, including Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, as well as major fortifications. By occupying this fortified line, the Russian army would gain a strong launching point for attacks on neighboring regions of Ukraine.
