The U.S. has agreed to provide unspecified security guarantees to Ukraine as part of a peace deal to end Russia’s nearly four-year war, and more talks are likely this weekend, U.S. officials said on Monday (December 15, 2025) following the latest discussions with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Berlin.

The officials said talks with President Donald Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, led to narrowing differences on security guarantees that Kyiv said must be provided, as well as on Moscow’s demand that Ukraine concede land in the Donbas region in the country’s east.

Mr. Trump dialled into a dinner on Monday evening with negotiators and European leaders, and more talks are expected this weekend in Miami or elsewhere in the United States, according to the U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to comment publicly by the White House.

“I think we’re closer now than we have been, ever,” Mr. Trump told reporters at an unrelated White House event. He added, “We’re having tremendous support from European leaders. They want to get it ended, also.” The U.S. officials said the offer of security guarantees won’t be on the table “forever.” They said the Trump administration plans to put forward the agreement on guarantees for Senate approval, although they didn’t specify whether it would be ratified like a treaty, which needs the chamber’s two-thirds approval.

In a statement, European leaders in Berlin said they and the U.S. committed to work together to provide “robust security guarantees,” including a European-led ”multinational force Ukraine” supported by the U.S.

They said the force’s work would include “operating inside Ukraine” as well as assisting in rebuilding Ukraine’s forces, securing its skies and supporting safer seas. They said Ukrainian forces should remain at a peacetime level of 800,000.

Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner were accompanied by U.S. Air Force Gen Alexus Grynkewich, who heads NATO’s military operations and the US European Command, as talks honed in on the particulars of what the U.S. officials described as an “Article 5-like” security agreement. Article Five in the NATO treaty is the collective defence clause stating that an attack on one member is an attack on all.

The U.S. side presented the Ukrainians a document that spelled out in greater specificity aspects of the proposed U.S. security guarantees — something that Ukrainian officials said was missing from earlier iterations of the U.S. peace proposal, according to U.S. officials.

Ukraine’s postwar security

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called it a “truly far-reaching, substantial agreement that we did not have before, namely that both Europe and the U.S. are jointly prepared to do this.” Questions over Ukraine’s postwar security and the fate of occupied territories have been the main obstacles in talks.

Mr. Zelenskyy has emphasised that any Western security assurances would need to be legally binding and supported by the U.S. Congress. Meanwhile, Russia has said it will not accept any troops from NATO countries being based on Ukrainian soil.

Mr. Zelenskyy on Monday called the talks “substantial” and noted that differences remain on the issue of territory.

Mr. Zelenskyy has expressed readiness to drop Ukraine’s bid to join NATO if the U.S. and other Western nations give Kyiv security guarantees similar to those offered to NATO members. But Ukraine’s preference remains NATO membership as the best security guarantee to prevent further Russian aggression.

Ukraine has continued to reject the U.S. push for ceding territory to Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the part of the Donetsk region still under its control as a key condition for peace.

The U.S. officials on Monday said there is consensus on about 90% of the U.S.-authored peace plan, and that Russia has indicated it is open to Ukraine joining the European Union, something it previously said it did not object to.

The Russian President has cast Ukraine’s bid to join NATO, however, as a major threat to Moscow’s security and a reason for launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022. The Kremlin has demanded that Ukraine renounce the bid for alliance membership as part of any prospective peace settlement.

Asked whether the negotiations could be over by Christmas, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said trying to predict a potential time frame for a peace deal was a “thankless task.” “I can only speak for the Russian side, for President Putin,” Mr. Peskov said. “He is open to peace, to a serious peace and serious decisions. He is absolutely not open to any tricks aimed at stalling for time.” Mr. Putin has denied plans to attack any European allies.

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Kyiv’s European allies on Tuesday (December 2, 2025) of sabotaging U.S.-led efforts to end the nearly four-year-old war in Ukraine.

“They don’t have a peace agenda, they’re on the side of the war,” Mr. Putin said after speaking to an investment forum and before he met in the Kremlin with a U.S. delegation led by envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Mr. Putin’s accusations appeared to be his latest attempt to sow dissension between Mr. Trump and European countries and set the stage for exempting Moscow from blame for any lack of progress.

“They don’t have a peace agenda, they’re on the side of the war,” Mr. Putin said of the Europeans in comments to reporters.

He accused Europe of amending peace proposals with “demands that are absolutely unacceptable to Russia,” thus “blocking the entire peace process,” only to blame Russia for it.

“That’s their goal,” Mr. Putin said.

He reiterated his long-held position that Russia has no plans to attack Europe — a concern regularly voiced by some European countries.

“But if Europe suddenly wants to wage a war with us and starts it, we are ready right away. There can be no doubt about that,” Mr. Putin said.

Russia started the war in 2022 with its full-scale invasion of a sovereign European country, and European governments have since spent billions of dollars to support Ukraine financially and militarily, to wean themselves from energy dependence on Russia and to strengthen their own militaries to deter Moscow from seizing more territory by force.

They worry that if Russia gets what it wants in Ukraine, it will have free rein to threaten or disrupt other European countries, which already have faced incursions from Russian drones and fighter jets, and an alleged widespread Russian sabotage campaign.

Speaking with Mr. Putin via a translator before the talks, Mr. Witkoff said he and Mr. Kushner had taken “a beautiful walk” around Moscow and described it as a “magnificent city.” Coinciding with Mr. Witkoff’s trip, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went to Ireland, continuing his visits to European countries that have helped sustain his country’s fight against Russia’s invasion.