USA – President Donald Trump has dragged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy into an explosive White House showdown after making a land swap pact with Vladimir Putin.
Trump, who held a summit with Putin on Friday, said he agrees the best way to end the war was to go straight to a peace settlement - not via a ceasefire, as Ukraine and its European allies, until now with US support, have been demanding.
Trump signalled that he and Putin had discussed potential land swaps and security guarantees for Ukraine, a proposal that has left Europe reeling as analysts brand it ‘deeply disturbing’ and a ‘clear 1-0 for Putin’.
The US also reportedly proposed an agreement that would see Ukraine not join Nato - but instead be offered Nato-esque protections similar to Article 5, diplomatic sources have claimed. Article 5 on Nato’s founding treaty agrees collective defence - meaning allies see an attack on one as an attack on all of them.
Trump reportedly floated the plan with Zelenskyy and European leaders during a call after his meeting with Putin. It is unclear what Ukraine would have to give up to secure the deal but Zelenskyy is set to meet with Trump in DC tomorrow to further discuss the path forward.
“As one of the security guarantees for Ukraine, the American side proposed a non-NATO Article 5 type guarantee, supposedly agreed with Putin,” one diplomatic insider said of the proposed agreement.
Another source with knowledge of the matter confirmed the NATO-like guarantees had been discussed.
But that source added: “No-one knows how this could work and why Putin would agree to it if he is categorically against NATO and obviously against really effective guarantees of Ukraine’s sovereignty.”
Details of the alleged proposal emerged yesterday after Trump hailed his meeting with Putin as ‘great and very successful’.
He is urging Ukraine to agree a deal to end the war because ‘Russia is a very big power and they’re not’, and hinted that land swap deals and security guarantees were among the negotiations discussed.
President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump. (Pic: The Economist)