Trump administration to push Russia to accept NATO-like security guarantees for Ukraine from US

The Trump administration is optimistic that its trilateral talks with Russian and Ukrainian officials set for Tuesday and Wednesday in the United Arab Emirates could result in legitimate progress that allows them to continue the talks on the way to a lasting peace.The U.S. delegation will be led by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, both of whom have led previous rounds of negotiations, though over two years the Trump administration has made little tangible progress toward ending the largest land war on European soil since the end of World War II.“I do believe that now we’re in a position where there is a shot at trying to make serious progress to end the war,” a U.S. official told reporters on Monday. There are two different areas where the negotiators intend to focus in this new round of talks: security guarantees and territory.On security guarantees, Ukraine wants to ensure that if it agrees to concessions to end the current conflict, Russia would not be able to use that peacetime to resupply and restock its forces only to restart the war at the time and place of its choosing. Ukrainian officials want promises from the U.S. and Europe that they would come to Ukraine’s defense if Russia were to restart the war.“We’ve asked the Russians for us to be able to give an Article Four and an Article Five-like security guarantee to Ukraine, along with NATO providing the same,” the official said. “So, what they would be getting would be effectively very similar to NATO. Obviously, there has to be some other arrangements worked out between. But, the goal for President Trump is that if he’s going to make this deal, he wants it to be the deal that’s going to last for a very, very long time.”Russian officials have pointed to NATO’s eastern expansion in Europe as one of the root causes of the war, but the NATO alliance is a defensive agreement and the alliance’s two most recent members, Finland and Sweden, joined after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine because they didn’t want to experience the same fate Ukraine did.“So in terms of what the U.S. will provide, I think right now there’s definitely security guarantees that we’ll discuss again,” the official said. “We’ll see what President Trump decides if he wants to grant it. Getting a U.S. security guarantee is a really, really big deal. But that’ll be up to him and President Zelensky to discuss.”Kushner said on Friday that the president had discussed with several European leaders the need for “a broader European security architecture that can help establish the conditions for lasting peace,” which garnered consternation from European leaders concerned that the U.S. would not include their opinions in these negotiations.The U.S. official who briefed reporters on Monday said they believe “very strongly” that Europe needs to be “at the table.”The two sides also hold strongly opposing viewpoints on territorial concessions. Russian leaders maintain that they want to get additional territory they have been unable to capture militarily in a deal to end the war, while Ukrainian officials have expressed a willingness to halt the war along its current lines without giving Russia additional territory it has yet to conquer.“Both sides have shown a little bit of flexibility privately,” the U.S. official said, referencing the ongoing divide on territorial concessions, though the official noted that it will not be resolved “until they know what the security architecture is going to be after the war.”This week’s meeting also comes on the heels of the first successful localized ceasefire, which first lady Melania Trump brokered. The six-daylong ceasefire allowed for many of the remaining civilians living in Oleshky, the southern Ukrainian city that Russia has occupied since early in the war, to safely evacuate.DEMOCRATS SALIVATE OVER PENTAGON OVERSIGHT WITH NEW MAJORITIESUkrainian officials involved in the deal said last week that they were hopeful Melania Trump would be able to negotiate additional localized ceasefires to help the communities most desperate for aid.David Arakhamia, head of Zelensky’s parliamentary faction, and Dmytro Lubinets, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, held a press conference at the Ukrainian embassy in Washington, D.C., last Friday. Both praised the American first lady and said she played an integral role in actualizing the ceasefire agreement for Oleshky and are hopeful she can lead similar initiatives elsewhere in the country.