{"id":348369,"date":"2025-12-14T22:58:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T22:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/348369\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T22:58:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T22:58:08","slug":"ukraine-willing-to-drop-ambitions-to-join-nato-zelenskyy-says-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/348369\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine willing to drop ambitions to join Nato, Zelenskyy says | Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has offered to drop Ukraine\u2019s aspirations to join the Nato military alliance,<\/p>\n

as he held five hours of talks with US envoys in Berlin on Sunday to end the war with Russia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump\u2019s special envoy Steve Witkoff said \u201ca lot of progress was made\u201d as he and the US president\u2019s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met Zelenskyy in the latest push to end Europe\u2019s bloodiest conflict since the second world war \u2013 though full details were not divulged.<\/p>\n

Dmytro Lytvyn, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, said Zelenskyy would comment further when the talks conclude on Monday. He added that officials are now considering the draft documents.<\/p>\n

Before the talks, Zelenskyy had offered to drop Ukraine\u2019s goal to join Nato in exchange for western security guarantees.<\/p>\n

The move marks a big shift for Ukraine, which has fought to join Nato<\/a> as a safeguard against Russian attacks and has such an aspiration included in its constitution. It also meets one of Russia\u2019s war aims, although Kyiv has so far held firm against ceding territory to Moscow.<\/p>\n

\u201cRepresentatives held in-depth discussions regarding the 20-point plan for peace, economic agendas, and more. A lot of progress was made,\u201d Witkoff wrote in a post on X.<\/p>\n

The talks were hosted by the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz<\/a>, who a source said had made brief remarks before leaving the two sides to negotiate. Other European leaders are also due in Germany for talks on Monday.<\/p>\n

Steve Witkoff and Volodymyr Zelenskyy were hosted by Friedrich Merz (right) in Berlin. Photograph: dts News Agency Germany Handout Bundesregierung\/Guido Bergmann\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy described the concession on Nato as a compromise.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the very beginning, Ukraine\u2019s desire was to join Nato: these are real security guarantees. Some partners from the US and Europe<\/a> did not support this direction,\u201d he said \u2013 adding that legally binding security guarantees from the US, Europe and other countries such as Canada and Japan could \u201cprevent another Russian invasion\u201d.<\/p>\n

Vladimir Putin has repeatedly demanded that Ukraine officially renounce its Nato ambitions and withdraw troops from approximately 10% of Donbas that Kyiv still controls. Moscow has also said that Ukraine must be a neutral country, and that no Nato troops can be stationed there.<\/p>\n

Russian sources said earlier this year that Putin wants a \u201cwritten\u201d pledge by leading western powers not to enlarge the US-led Nato alliance eastwards \u2013 shorthand for formally ruling out membership to Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and other former Soviet republics.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy had earlier called for a \u201cdignified\u201d peace and guarantees that Russia would not attack Ukraine again.<\/p>\n

Under pressure from Trump to sign a peace deal that initially backed Moscow\u2019s demands, Zelenskyy accused Russia of dragging out the war through deadly bombings of cities, as well as Ukraine\u2019s power and water supplies.<\/p>\n

\"TrumpTrump turns on Europe: will he pull support for Ukraine? | The Latest<\/p>\n

Sending Witkoff, who has led negotiations with Ukraine and Russia on a US peace proposal, appeared to be a signal that Washington saw a chance of progress nearly four years after Russia\u2019s 2022 invasion.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy said Ukraine, Europe and the US are looking at a 20-point plan, and that at the end of this there is a ceasefire. He said Kyiv has had no direct talks with Moscow.<\/p>\n

A ceasefire along the current frontlines would be a fair option, he added.<\/p>\n

Britain, France and Germany have been working to refine the US proposals, which in a draft disclosed last month called for Kyiv to cede more territory, abandon its Nato ambitions and accept limits on its armed forces.<\/p>\n

European allies have described this as a \u201ccritical moment\u201d that could shape Ukraine\u2019s future, and sought to shore up Kyiv\u2019s finances by leveraging frozen Russian central bank assets<\/a> to fund Kyiv\u2019s military and civilian budget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Volodymyr Zelenskyy has offered to drop Ukraine\u2019s aspirations to join the Nato military alliance, as he held five…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-348369","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}