Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at 10 Downing Avenue, in London, Britain, December 8, 2025.
Toby Melville | Reuters
Ukraine has mentioned it is keen to surrender its aspirations to affix NATO in return for safety ensures, as a part of a peace deal to finish the virtually four-year battle with Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy provided to drop Kyiv’s NATO desires throughout 5 hours of talks with U.S. officers Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Berlin over the weekend. Witkoff mentioned “numerous progress was made” throughout the talks, that are set to proceed on Monday.
Ukraine’s supply marks a significant coverage shift. It has lengthy coveted membership of the Western navy alliance, whose members are obliged to think about an assault on one as an assault on all beneath Article 5 of the NATO treaty.
Zelenskyy mentioned on Sunday that the supply to drop NATO membership in return for safety ensures was a compromise, amid resistance amongst a few of its Western allies to its NATO bid.
“From the very starting, Ukraine’s situations – or maybe extra precisely, our ambition – was NATO membership. And that will have supplied actual safety ensures. Some companions from the USA and Europe didn’t assist this route,” he mentioned in reply to questions from reporters in a WhatsApp chat on Sunday.
“That’s the reason at present the bilateral safety ensures between Ukraine and the USA, particularly Article 5–like ensures from the USA for us, and the safety ensures from our European colleagues for us, in addition to from different nations similar to Canada and Japan – these safety ensures for us present a chance to stop one other outbreak of Russian aggression,” Zelenskyy commented.
“And this already is a compromise on our half,” he mentioned.
Regardless of Ukraine publicly abandoning its NATO bid, the possibilities of it becoming a member of the alliance have been vanishingly skinny. A number of members have been immune to the concept, together with Moscow-friendly Slovakia and Hungary. Even Ukraine’s allies inside NATO apprehensive about poking the Russian bear past Ukraine’s borders.
Moscow vehemently opposes Ukraine becoming a member of NATO, and Russia has claimed the alliance’s growth in Jap Europe was one of many causes it launched its so-called “particular navy operation” towards Ukraine in 2022.
Kyiv insists that safety ensures should be part of a peace deal as an alternative of NATO membership, and this stays a sticking level in negotiations with Moscow, which is refusing to permit Ukraine’s allies to be a part of any peacekeeping drive within the nation.
Talks a few draft peace settlement are persevering with on Monday. Zelenskyy aide Dmytro Lytvyn mentioned that the president would touch upon the talks as soon as they have been accomplished, Reuters reported.
