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Donald Trump said talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin had brought a peace deal in Ukraine “closer now than we have ever been”, even as European officials said sensitive territorial issues had yet to be resolved.

Speaking in the Oval Office on Monday, the US president said he had a “very good” and “long” discussion with several European leaders, whose support had been “tremendous”.

“I think we’re closer now, and they will tell you that they’re closer now,” Trump said. “We had numerous conversations with President Putin of Russia, and I think we’re closer now than we have been ever.”

Trump also signalled that the US was close to agreeing a security guarantee for Ukraine against a future attack by Russia.

“In terms of security guarantee, we’ll work on that. We’re working with Europe on it. Europe would be a big part of it,” he said.

Trump was speaking just hours after officials from Ukraine, Germany and the US claimed progress in drafting a deal to end Russia’s invasion, but admitted they remained divided over issues including territory and how to secure a ceasefire.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner had “clearly understood” Kyiv’s position after two days of talks on a US-led peace plan in Berlin.

Witkoff and Kushner stayed in Berlin for a dinner with Zelenskyy and European leaders on Monday.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who hosted the talks in Berlin, said the US had agreed to provide “substantial legal and material security guarantees from the USA and Europeans” to secure a ceasefire.

“This is a really far-reaching, substantive agreement that we have not had so far,” Merz added. “In my opinion, providing similar security guarantees for Ukraine is a really big step forward . . . The American side has also committed itself politically and legally to do so.”

Neither the US or Ukraine, however, offered details on what the guarantees would entail or how they would work, even as one US official claimed they had “probably solved literally 90 per cent of the issues”.

In a statement, EU leaders said that they would work on creating a European-led “multinational” peacekeeping force for Ukraine, which would be supported by the US.

Washington would lead a ceasefire monitoring mechanism that would provide “early warning” of any future attacks on Ukraine, and also respond to any breaches of a peace deal, the leaders added.

Russia has already said that it would have “strong objections” to any Ukrainian and European input into the US peace plan and insisted its own demands be reflected in any security guarantees.

But Trump believes he can convince Putin to accept the plan, the US official said.

Negotiators in Berlin discussed draft guarantees modelled after Article 5, Nato’s collective defence clause, as well as “really good safeguards” that would deter future aggression, a second US official said.

They added the offer of security guarantees “will not be on the table forever”, without elaborating.

The US side has not indicated whether Washington’s role would be in providing the security guarantees.

“What’s on the table is really the platinum standard for what can be offered. It would have to go before the Senate [for ratification], and President Trump is willing to do that,” a US official said.

Trump has pushed Ukraine to quickly accept the US peace plan, initially drafted with Russian input, in the hope of agreeing a ceasefire by Christmas.

But Zelenskyy admitted the US and Ukraine remain divided on territorial concessions that Putin has demanded from Kyiv as a condition to end his invasion.

“At this stage, our positions differ,” Zelenskyy said. “The issue of territories is painful, because Russia wants what it wants.”

US officials said they discussed creating an “economic free zone” with Zelenskyy in the industrial heartland of the Donbas on the frontline and gave him some “thought provoking ideas” about how to respond to Putin’s demands.

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Russia has said it will not agree to any ceasefire until Ukraine withdraws its forces from the Donetsk region in the Donbas, where Kyiv currently controls about a third of the territory.

Ukraine has resisted any territorial concessions in the region, particularly the cities in the Donbas “fortress belt” that have helped repel Russia’s advances along the frontline.

The US said Ukrainian officials also met with a pro bono team from asset manager BlackRock over the weekend to discuss a “prosperity package” to rebuild the country.

But the US also wants to reintegrate Russia into the global economy so that it would have an incentive not to restart the war.

“There’s no such thing as permanent allies or permanent enemies,” a US official said.