Donald Trump is rushing to establish peace in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin - no. The Economist. Part 2/2.
As before, the most difficult issue is security guarantees, without which Ukraine says it cannot stop the hostilities.
Currently, there is no clear compromise that would allow Russia to declare victory, and Ukraine to maintain sovereignty over even the portion of its remaining territory.
US negotiators say Putin could agree to a US guarantee similar to Article 4 or Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, meaning a promise to consult if Ukraine is threatened or to defend it if attacked. However, the Ukrainians doubt that Trump will honor such guarantees.
Russia, for its part, has shown no signs that it will agree to the deployment of a multinational security force on the territory of Ukraine. It also did not give up its demands for Ukraine to declare neutrality and reduce the size of its army.
Ukrainian and European officials fear that the American proposal to include the issue of mechanisms for ensuring European security in the negotiations will give Russia a new lever that it can use to delay the agreement on a ceasefire.
They argue that a ceasefire must be completed before any negotiations on Europe's future security can begin. However, the Americans do not agree with this and, apparently, take a position close to the one that Putin has defended since the beginning of the conflict in 2022. The war in Ukraine cannot end without discussing future mechanisms to ensure European security.
A source close to the White House indicates that the model for this new architecture may be a redesigned Russia-NATO council.