By Andreas Rinke
BERLIN, Dec 15 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will resume talks with U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoys in Berlin on Monday, after the U.S. side said a “lot of progress” had been made on ending Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two.
Zelenskiy will again meet U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner after five hours of talks on Sunday, with other European leaders also holding meetings in the German capital throughout the day.
Ukraine said on Sunday it was willing to drop its ambition to join the NATO alliance in exchange for Western security guarantees. But it was not immediately clear how far talks had progressed on that or other vital issues such as the future of Ukrainian territory, and how much the talks in Berlin could persuade Russia to agree to a ceasefire.
EUROPEAN DIPLOMACY FACES CRUCIAL WEEK
The talks come at the start of a pivotal week for Europe, with an EU summit on Thursday set to decide whether it can underwrite a massive loan to Ukraine with frozen Russian central bank assets.
Europe has come under fire from the Trump administration in recent weeks over its policies on migration, security and regulating big tech. The European Union and national governments have struggled to find a unified response to the U.S. criticism.
EU foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels on Monday to agree on new sanctions against Russia, although the possibility of an 11th-hour hitch to agreeing an EU trade deal with Latin America threatens to further undermine their attempts to put on a show of strength.
“We will continue to do everything we can to ensure that Ukraine can achieve the best possible negotiating position and, in the event of failure, that it has all the necessary means to retaliate against this war of aggression,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told Deutschlandfunk radio.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who has been closely involved in the Ukraine talks and was meeting Zelenskiy on Monday morning ahead of the U.S. negotiations, sounded a tentatively hopeful note.
“I think we are at a critical moment in negotiations for peace,” he told Dutch TV programme Buitenhof broadcast on Sunday.
“And at the same time, we’re probably closer to a peace agreement than we have been at any time during these four years,” said Stubb, who also met Kushner in Berlin on Sunday evening.
SECURITY GUARANTEES AMONG ISSUES IN FOCUS
Stubb said the sides were working on three main documents – the framework of a 20-point peace plan, one relating to security guarantees for Ukraine, and a third on reconstruction of the country.
“So we’re looking at the details together with the Americans, Europeans, and the Ukrainians,” he added.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the leaders of Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden were among those expected in the German capital on Monday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly demanded that Ukraine officially renounce its NATO ambitions and withdraw troops from the roughly 10% of the eastern Donbas region which Kyiv still controls.
Moscow has also said that Ukraine must be a neutral country and that no NATO troops can be stationed there.
Russian sources earlier this year said Putin wants a “written” pledge by major Western powers not to enlarge the U.S.-led NATO alliance eastwards – shorthand for formally ruling out membership to Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and other former Soviet republics.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday that taking over Ukraine’s Donbas region will “not be Putin’s endgame”.
“We have to understand that if he gets Donbas, then the fortress is down and then they definitely move on to taking the whole of Ukraine,” Kallas, a former Estonian prime minister, told reporters.
“If Ukraine goes, then other regions are also in danger.”
(Reporting by Andreas Rinke Anne Kauranen, Olena Harmash, Lili Bayer; writing by Matthias WilliamsEditing by Gareth Jones)
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