Europe Asks Trump To Consolidate Up Front Security Guarantees For Ukraine - Reports

MOSCOW, Dec 30 (Bernama-Sputnik/RIA Novosti) -- In a recent call with US President Donald Trump, European leaders pushed for written security guarantees for Ukraine before any talks on a ceasefire or a settlement referendum, Sputnik/RIA Novosti reported, quoting the Kyiv Post newspaper on Tuesday.

On Sunday, Trump met Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. Trump said that Europe would take on most of the security guarantees for Ukraine, but the US would definitely help with this. Zelenskyy claimed that the security guarantees between the US and Ukraine had been 100 per cent agreed upon. After their bilateral talks, Trump and Zelenskyy joined a telephone conversation with European leaders. Before meeting Zelenskyy, Trump said he had a good and very productive phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

During talks with Trump, European leaders insisted that the territorial issue should be resolved with clear written security guarantees for Ukraine.

Since mid-November, the United States has been promoting a new peace plan for Ukraine. On December 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin received US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner at the Kremlin. The US representatives' visit to Russia was related to the discussion of the US peace plan for Ukraine. The Kremlin stated that Russia remained open to negotiations and committed to the Anchorage discussions.

In mid-December, Berlin hosted negotiations on the Ukrainian settlement, involving Witkoff, Kushner and Zelenskyy. Witkoff later reported progress on a 20-point settlement plan. Zelenskyy later announced his willingness to abandon NATO membership aspirations if he received security guarantees from individual countries, including the US.

-- BERNAMA-SPUTNIK