Ukraine is ready to give up its requests to join NATO in exchange for security guarantees from the United States and Europe. This was announced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a few hours after the meeting in Berlin with Donald Trump’s envoys, according to the Financial Times, which had a conversation with the Ukrainian leader on WhatsApp, together with other newspapers.
Zelensky admitted that Ukraine is unlikely to join NATO but also reminded that Kiev still needs guarantees similar to NATO’s Article 5 clause on mutual protection for any member under attack. “We are talking about bilateral security guarantees between Ukraine and the United States, that is, guarantees similar to Article 5,” he explained, “as well as security guarantees from our European partners and other countries such as Canada, Japan and others.”
This, he was keen to underline, “is already a compromise as far as we are concerned”. Zelenskyy then explained that Ukraine has not yet received a response from Washington to the revised proposals sent earlier this week, after consultations with European leaders.