By Trevor Hunnicutt and David Ljunggren
(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump could offer NATO-like protection of Ukraine, and Russia is open to the idea, one of his top foreign policy officials said on Sunday ahead of a meeting with Ukraine and European leaders to hammer out details of possible security guarantees for Kyiv.
“We were able to win the following concession, that the United States could offer Article 5-like protection,” Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to Russia, told CNN’s “State of the Union” program. “The United States could offer Article 5 protection, which was the first time we had ever heard the Russians agree to that.”
Witkoff was referring to Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which regards any attack against one of its 32 members as an attack on all. He suggested that a security guarantee of that scale could be offered to Ukraine in lieu of NATO membership, which Putin has ruled out.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has been gradually advancing for months in the deadliest war in Europe for 80 years,
Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who were both in the room when Trump met Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, gave a series of TV interviews ahead of a Monday meeting in Washington with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and leaders of some European allies.
“We made some progress, we believe, and now we have to follow up on that progress,” Rubio told CNN’s “State of the Union” about the meeting with Putin. “Ultimately, where this should lead is to a meeting between the three leaders, between Zelenskiy, Putin and President Trump, where we can finalize, but we got to get this thing closer before we get to that point.”
Russian officials are opposed to Western troops in Ukraine, but have not ruled out a security guarantee for Kyiv. Speaking during a joint media appearance with Trump after their nearly three-hour long meeting, Putin said on Friday: “I agree with President Trump. He said today that Ukraine’s security must be ensured by all means. Of course, we are ready to work on this.”
Witkoff told “Fox News Sunday” that Russia had also agreed to passing a law against taking any more of Ukraine by force.
“The Russians agreed on enshrining legislatively language that would prevent them from – or that they would attest to not attempting to take any more land from Ukraine after a peace deal, where they would attest to not violating any European borders,” he said.
PEACE DEAL VS SURRENDER
Any security guarantees offered to Zelenskiy could also include a commitment from the United States, Rubio told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures”, an option that many of Trump’s MAGA supporters have rejected up to now.
“It would be a very big move by the president, if he were to offer a U.S. commitment to a security guarantee,” Rubio said. “It tells you how badly he wants peace, how much he values peace, that he would be willing to make a concession like that …That’s what we’ll talk about tomorrow.”
In a social media post, Trump wrote, “BIG PROGRESS ON RUSSIA. STAY TUNED!” But he gave no details.
Rubio said U.S. officials discussed security details for Ukraine with the national security advisers of multiple European countries on Saturday, adding that the aim would be to build in details that could ultimately be presented to Russia as part of a peace agreement.
He told Fox News that the talks between Trump and Putin on Friday had narrowed the number of key issues, which include drawing borders and military alliances for Ukraine as well as security guarantees. “There’s a lot of work that remains,” Rubio added.
According to sources, Trump and Putin discussed proposals for Russia to relinquish tiny pockets of occupied Ukraine in exchange for Ukraine ceding a swathe of fortified land in the east and freezing the front lines elsewhere.
Rubio said Russia and Ukraine would not be able to get everything they want.
“If one side gets everything they want, that’s not a peace deal. It’s called surrender, and I don’t think this is a war that’s going to end anytime soon on the basis of surrender,” Rubio told CNN.
In a separate interview on ABC, Rubio said if a deal could not be reached to end the war, existing U.S. sanctions on Russia would continue, and more could be added.
When Zelenskiy visited the White House in February, the meeting ended in a shouting match. Rubio, speaking to CBS, dismissed the idea that the European leaders were coming to Washington to protect Zelenskiy.
“They’re not coming here tomorrow to keep Zelenskiy from being bullied. They’re coming here tomorrow because we’ve been working with the Europeans,” he said. “We invited them to come.”
(Reporting by David Ljunggren and Trevor Hunnicutt; additional reporting by Raphael Satter and Sarah N. Lynch in Washington; Writing by David Morgan; Editing by Rod Nickel, Michelle Nichols and Marguerita Choy)
