European firepower behind Zelenskyy in Washington meeting; Russian attacks continue with dozen injured in Kharkiv and Sumy. What we know on day 1,272
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has hailed the decision to offer security guarantees to Ukraine as part of a peace deal as he prepared to meet Donald Trump in Washington on Monday. “Security guarantees, as a result of our joint work, must really be very practical, delivering protection on land, in the air and at sea, and must be developed with Europe’s participation,” said the Ukrainian president.
Trump’s Ukraine envoy, the real estate developer Steve Witkoff, said Vladimir Putin had agreed that the US and European allies could offer Ukraine a Nato-style, “Article 5-like” security guarantee as part of an eventual deal to end the war. It appeared to be a major shift for Putin, but Witkoff has previously got it wrong when announcing what has been agreed in talks with the Russians – he does not speak Russian and has walked into meetings with Vladimir Putin without a translator of his own.
Russia agrees that any future peace agreement on Ukraine must provide security guarantees to Kyiv but Moscow also needs credible security assurances, Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s envoy to international organisations in Vienna, said early on Monday. “Many leaders of EU states emphasise that a future peace agreement should provide reliable security assurances or guarantees for Ukraine,” Ulyanov said. “Russia agrees with that. But it has equal right to expect that Moscow will also get efficient security guarantees.” Russia has not been invaded by another country since the end of the second world war – apart from the humiliating Ukrainian counter-invasion of Kursk – while having repeatedly invaded other countries and illegally annexed their territory.
