Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. envoys arrived in Berlin on Sunday for another round of talks intended to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, as Moscow and Kyiv stuck to their sharply opposite views of a prospective peace deal.
Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian, U.S. and European officials will hold a series of meetings. He said he will meet personally with U.S. President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Mr. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in Berlin.
Responding to journalists’ questions in audio clips on a WhatsApp group chat, Zelenskyy emphasized the need for Ukraine to receive firm guarantees from the United States and European allies that would be similar to those offered to NATO members, after the U.S. and some European countries stonewalled Ukraine’s bid to join the military alliance.
“These security guarantees are an opportunity to prevent another wave of Russian aggression,” he said. “And this is already a compromise on our part.”
U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner arrives at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, December 14, 2025.
Axel Schmidt / REUTERS
Zelenskyy emphasized that any security assurances would need to be legally binding and supported by the U.S. Congress, adding that he expected an update from his team following a meeting between Ukrainian and U.S. military officials in Stuttgart.
He said that he will meet separately with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and, possibly, other European leaders later in the evening. He said he hadn’t yet received any response from the U.S. to Ukraine’s latest proposals on the peace plan.
Washington has tried for months to navigate the demands of each side as Mr. Trump presses for a swift end to Russia’s war and grows increasingly exasperated by delays. The search for possible compromises has run into major obstacles, including control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which is mostly occupied by Russian forces.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the part of the Donetsk region still under its control, among the key conditions for peace — a demand Zelenskyy again rejected on Sunday.
Zelenskyy said that the U.S. had floated an idea for Ukraine to withdraw from the Donetsk and create a demilitarized free economic zone there, a proposal he rejected as unworkable.
“I do not consider this fair, because who will manage this economic zone?” he said. “If we are talking about some buffer zone along the line of contact, if we are talking about some economic zone and we believe that only a police mission should be there and troops should withdraw, then the question is very simple. If Ukrainian troops withdraw 5–10 kilometers, for example, then why do Russian troops not withdraw deeper into the occupied territories by the same distance?”
Zelenskyy described the issue as “very sensitive” and insisted on a freeze along the line of contact, saying that “today a fair possible option is we stand where we stand.”
Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, told the business daily Kommersant that Russian police and national guard would stay in parts of the Donetsk region even if they become a demilitarized zone under a prospective peace plan.
Ushakov warned that a search for compromise could take a long time, noting that the U.S. proposals that took into account Russian demands had been “worsened” by alterations proposed by Ukraine and its European allies.
Speaking to Russian state TV in remarks broadcast Sunday, Ushakov said that “the contribution of Ukrainians and Europeans to these documents is unlikely to be constructive,” warning that Moscow will “have very strong objections.”
Ushakov added that the territorial issue was actively discussed in Moscow when Witkoff and Kushner met with Putin earlier this month. “The Americans know and understand our position,” he said.
Merz, who has spearheaded European efforts to support Ukraine alongside French President Emmanuel Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, said Saturday that “the decades of the ‘Pax Americana’ are largely over for us in Europe and for us in Germany as well.”
He warned that Putin’s aim is “a fundamental change to the borders in Europe, the restoration of the old Soviet Union within its borders.” “If Ukraine falls, he won’t stop,” Merz warned on Saturday during a party conference in Munich.
Putin has denied plans to restore the Soviet Union or attack any European allies.
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