KYIV, Ukraine — The United States has offered Ukraine security guarantees for a period of 15 years as part of a proposed peace plan aimed at ending the war with Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday, noting that he would prefer a longer American commitment of up to 50 years to deter future aggression.
Zelenskyy’s remarks followed a meeting with US President Donald Trump, who hosted the Ukrainian leader at his Florida resort on Sunday. Trump said Ukraine and Russia are “closer than ever before” to reaching a peace settlement, while also cautioning that the months-long, US-led negotiations could still collapse.
“Without security guarantees, realistically, this war will not end,” Zelenskyy said in voice messages sent to reporters via a WhatsApp chat.
Negotiators, however, have yet to reach a breakthrough on key unresolved issues, including the withdrawal of forces, territorial control, and the future of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, one of the 10 largest nuclear facilities in the world.
Ukraine has been fighting Russia since 2014, when Moscow illegally annexed Crimea and Russia-backed separatists launched an armed insurgency in the Donbas, a strategic industrial region in eastern Ukraine.
While the specific details of the proposed security guarantees have not been made public, Zelenskyy said they would cover mechanisms for monitoring a peace agreement and the “presence” of partner countries. He did not elaborate, amid Russia’s repeated opposition to the deployment of NATO troops on Ukrainian territory.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump are expected to speak in the near future, though there was no indication that Putin would hold talks with Zelenskyy.
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron said Ukraine’s allies would meet in Paris in early January to finalize each country’s concrete contributions to the proposed security guarantees.
Zelenskyy also said Trump expressed openness to extending US security guarantees beyond the initial 15-year period. Any guarantees, he added, would require approval from the US Congress and the parliaments of other countries tasked with overseeing a potential settlement.
The Ukrainian president said he wants the 20-point peace plan currently under discussion to be approved by the Ukrainian public through a national referendum. However, he noted that such a vote would require a ceasefire of at least 60 days, something Moscow has so far shown no willingness to accept without a comprehensive peace agreement in place.
Edgardo Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
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