Two-day talks between the American and Ukrainian delegations have ended in Berlin. At the second stage, they were joined by Europeans and high-ranking representatives of NATO. What the parties came to — in the material of RBC
After negotiations between the delegations of Ukraine and the United States in Berlin, 90% of the issues of the peace agreement between Kiev and Moscow can be considered resolved. This was reported on December 15 by Sky News and Bloomberg, citing an unnamed American official. According to him, the key topics of the talks were guarantees of Ukraine’s security by analogy with Article 5 of the NATO Charter and territorial issues. It is possible that the U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators will hold consultations in separate working groups next weekend, possibly in Miami.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on December 15, admitted that the positions of Kiev and Washington on the topic of territories diverge, he called this issue difficult and painful, and the negotiations in Berlin were difficult but productive.
Who took part in the negotiations
The consultations of the Ukrainian and American delegations in the German capital, organized with the assistance of the German government, took place in two rounds — on December 14 and 15. The key negotiators on the U.S. side were special presidential envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. In recent weeks, they have been working on the American peace plan, which initially included 28 points, and then was reduced to 20. Earlier, they discussed it with the Ukrainian and Russian sides in Geneva, Miami and Moscow. The U.S. delegation also included General Alexus Grinkevich, Commander of the NATO Joint Armed Forces in Europe.
On December 11, Trump warned that he would send representatives to Berlin only if he saw an opportunity to make progress. Therefore, as noted by Reuters, the decision to send Witkoff to negotiations can be regarded as a signal: Washington believes in an early settlement of the conflict. In a statement on December 14, Witkoff himself said that the parties had made “significant progress” in discussing both the US plan and the economic component of a future settlement. The special envoy did not specify on which points the consensus was reached. At the same time, the Trump administration expects to reach a deal as soon as possible — by December 25, when Catholics will celebrate Christmas.
Vladimir Zelensky, going to Berlin for talks on December 13, told how the work is going on from the Ukrainian side: the head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), Lieutenant General Andrei Gnatov, and representatives of the Ukrainian defense sector are working on the details of security guarantees; in parallel, other Ukrainian officials are communicating with representatives of the United States and Europe, discussing the restoration and development of the republic after the conflict ends. The Ukrainian leader called the purpose of the talks in Berlin “a political agreement to end the war.”
Before the talks, Zelensky met with representatives of the Ukrainian delegation, headed by Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Rustem Umerov, to inform him about previous contacts with representatives of the United States. Zelensky spoke separately these days with Merz and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who are among the European leaders who have developed a trusting relationship with Trump.
By Monday evening, other senior NATO officials and European politicians had also arrived in Berlin for consultations. Among them: Secretary General of the alliance Mark Rutte, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, as well as the prime ministers of Italy, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands. The German government told reporters that U.S. representatives had also been invited to this format. Merz explained that the participation of Americans in these consultations will “largely depend” on progress during the previous negotiation rounds on the “main documents.” Stubb, in turn, told reporters that negotiations are now entering a critical phase; at the same time, according to him, the parties are “closer to a peace agreement than ever before in these four years.”
The settlement in Ukraine was also discussed by the EU foreign ministers at a meeting in Brussels on December 15. During the meeting, the bloc announced new sanctions against Russia, and this time, for the first time, a US citizen, former deputy Sheriff of Florida John Mark Dugan, who applied for asylum in Russia in 2016, was subject to restrictions. However, to date, the EU countries have not yet reached a consensus on the use of frozen Russian assets for lending to Ukraine. According to Euractiv, Hungary and Slovakia, as well as Italy, Bulgaria, Malta and the Czech Republic joined Belgium in opposing this. European leaders are expected to make a final decision on this issue at the final EU summit scheduled for December 18-19.
The British The Guardian notes that this week will be crucial for the bloc in the context of its ability to influence the outcome of the conflict in Ukraine — firstly, it is about advancing European arguments in negotiations with representatives of the United States and demonstrating European unity; secondly, about the decision on the “reparations loan” for Kiev.
Earlier, Trump increased pressure on European allies, attacking European institutions and accusing Brussels of a weak position on Ukraine. Against this background, according to the Financial Times, in some EU countries there are now talks about entering into negotiations with the Americans directly, without the participation of the European Commission. In particular, Merz said: if Trump “cannot have relations” with EU institutions, then “at least there are individual member states, including Germany, with which such cooperation can continue.”
What points did the parties manage to agree on?
Umerov called the two-day talks in Berlin constructive and productive. “We hope that by the end of the day we will reach an agreement that will bring us closer to peace,” he wrote on the social network X. At the same time, the NSDC press service clarified that these words should not be taken literally: it is not about specific deadlines, but about the intention of the parties to come to an agreement “eventually.”
A compromise has already been found on a number of issues. In particular, Zelensky said that Ukraine may refuse to join NATO, but it will do so if it has a bilateral agreement with the United States on security guarantees similar to those contained in Article 5 of the alliance’s Charter (aggression against one NATO country is regarded as aggression against all). Kiev would also like to receive security guarantees from European countries, Canada and Japan.
Ukraine considers EU membership to be one of such guarantees. According to The Washington Post, the peace settlement plan includes the republic joining the bloc in an accelerated manner by 2027. However, some European officials call this option “absolutely impossible.” So far, the Europeans are in no hurry to name a clear deadline for the completion of Ukraine’s European integration. At the same time, at an informal meeting of European ministers for EU affairs, which took place in Lviv on December 11-12, it was decided to start new technical negotiations with Kiev in order to circumvent the disagreement of Hungary, which consistently blocks the republic’s accession to the union.
The world’s largest publications, including The New York Times (NYT), CNBC and Reuters, regarded Zelensky’s statement on NATO membership as a serious compromise and a departure from the previous strategy (in 2019, the Constitution of Ukraine was amended to consolidate the course towards full membership in this alliance).
The head of European diplomacy, Kaya Kallas, told reporters upon arrival at a meeting in Brussels that the European Union should seriously consider security guarantees for Ukraine if Kiev is really ready to refuse to join NATO. “These should not be just papers and promises,” she added, noting that guarantees should include “real opportunities for Ukraine to be able to defend itself.”
Commenting on the statements of the Ukrainian leader about his readiness to refuse to join NATO, German Foreign Minister Johann Vadefuhl said on Deutschlandfunk that this could become the basis for a dialogue. “If these are Ukraine’s proposals, then Russia can accept this position. But we will continue to do everything possible so that Ukraine can achieve the best possible negotiating position,” Vadefoul stressed.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, commenting on the talks in Berlin, said that the issue of Ukraine’s membership in NATO remains one of the cornerstones and “is subject to special discussion against the background of others.” Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov suggested the day before that Zelensky would not succeed in joining the North Atlantic Alliance by “1,000,000%.”
Russia has discussed the peace plan directly with the United States twice — first at the end of October, when developing a 28-point document, in which Kirill Dmitriev, the special representative of the President of Russia for investment and economic cooperation with foreign countries, participated, then on December 2, when Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow.
According to Russian representatives, Moscow has not seen the revised versions of the plan after that. “We have not seen any corrected versions of the American projects. When we see it, we may not like a lot of things,” Ushakov told reporters on December 12 (quoted by TASS). Two days later, he said that, in his assessment, the contribution of Ukraine and Europe to the peace agreements “is unlikely to be constructive” — if their amendments are made to the plan, Moscow “will have very strong objections.”
