{"id":352223,"date":"2025-12-16T14:41:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T14:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/352223\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T14:41:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T14:41:10","slug":"russia-ukraine-war-is-a-ceasefire-deal-on-the-horizon-donald-trump-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/352223\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia-Ukraine war: Is a ceasefire deal on the horizon? | Donald Trump News"},"content":{"rendered":"

US President Donald Trump claimed on Monday that an agreement to end Russia\u2019s nearly four-year war against Ukraine is \u201ccloser than ever<\/a>\u201d after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held talks with several European leaders and US diplomats in the German capital, Berlin.<\/p>\n

During the two days of high-level talks in Berlin, diplomats discussed how to secure Ukraine against future military threats from Russia, among other sticking issues.<\/p>\n

Before the Berlin meetings, Zelenskyy said Kyiv was willing to drop its NATO ambition in exchange for legally binding security guarantees. Russia used the NATO expansion as one of the justifications for its invasion in 2022.<\/p>\n

European leaders, however, say key differences are yet to be resolved between Moscow and Kyiv over territorial issues.<\/p>\n

Is a ceasefire agreement finally within reach?<\/p>\n

What was discussed in the meeting in Berlin?<\/p>\n

The Berlin meetings were attended by US envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as key leaders from France, Germany, the United Kingdom and NATO.<\/p>\n

In a statement after the talks, European leaders said they and the United States were committed to working together to provide \u201crobust security guarantees\u201d to Ukraine, including a European-led \u201cmultinational force Ukraine\u201d supported by the US.<\/p>\n

They said the force\u2019s work would include \u201coperating inside Ukraine\u201d as well as assisting in rebuilding Ukraine\u2019s forces, securing its skies and supporting safer seas. They said that Ukrainian forces should remain at a peacetime level of 800,000.<\/p>\n

Two US officials, speaking to the Reuters news agency, described the proposed protections as \u201cArticle 5-like\u201d, a reference to NATO\u2019s Article 5 mutual defence pledge \u2013 meaning an attack on one is an attack on all.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters in Berlin, Zelenskyy said that Kyiv needed a clear understanding of the security guarantees on offer before making any decisions on territorial control under a potential peace settlement. He added that any guarantees must include effective ceasefire monitoring.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian officials have been cautious about what form such guarantees could take. Kyiv received security assurances backed by the US and Europe after gaining independence in 1991, but those did not prevent Russia\u2019s invasions in 2014 (Crimea) and 2022.<\/p>\n

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Washington had offered \u201cconsiderable\u201d security guarantees during the Berlin talks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the US has placed on the table here in Berlin, in terms of legal and material guarantees, is really considerable,\u201d Merz said at a joint news conference with Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n

Russia has yet to comment on the proposals.<\/p>\n

What has Trump said about the Russia-Ukraine war?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re having tremendous support from European leaders. They want to get it [the war] ended also,\u201d Trump told reporters on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had numerous conversations with President [Vladimir] Putin of Russia, and I think we\u2019re closer now than we have been, ever, and we\u2019ll see what we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since coming to power in January, the US president has been making efforts to end the war and has pressed Ukraine to offer concessions.<\/p>\n

Several rounds of high-level discussions, including an Alaska summit between Trump and Putin in August, and draft peace proposals have failed to end Europe\u2019s deadliest war since World War II.<\/p>\n

\"Alaska\"USPresident Donald Trump shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin before a joint news conference following their meeting at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, US, on August 15, 2025 [File: Sputnik\/Gavriil Grigorov\/Pool via Reuters]What did Zelenskyy say?<\/p>\n

In an X post, Zelenskyy wrote on Monday that \u201cif these meetings had taken place earlier, the progress would have been even greater\u201d, referring to meetings with Witkoff and Kushner.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, we have different positions with Russia regarding territories. This must be acknowledged and discussed openly. I believe that the American side, acting as a mediator, will propose various steps to try to find at least some form of consensus,\u201d Zelenskyy wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will do everything possible to find clear answers to questions about security guarantees, territories, and money as compensation for Ukraine to rebuild. It is necessary to understand the source of this funding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ukraine had earlier signalled it may be willing to abandon its ambition to join the NATO military alliance in exchange for firm Western security guarantees. The Trump administration has been against NATO membership for Kyiv.<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cWe are discussing security guarantees. And before taking any steps on the battlefield, both the military and the civilian population must have a clear understanding of what the security guarantees will be. This is very important.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is unclear what particular security guarantees Ukraine would receive, and which countries will contribute to providing them.<\/p>\n

Addressing the Dutch parliament on Tuesday, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine and Europe are working on a document that could \u201cstop the killing,\u201d adding that \u201cevery single detail matters\u201d and \u201cevery detail represents a human life\u201d, according to Al Jazeera\u2019s Audrey MacAlpine, reporting from Kyiv.<\/p>\n

McAlpine said that Zelenskyy is mirroring the language of Trump, who has said the phrase \u201cstop the killing\u201d time and time again.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s talking about documents. We know, before this meeting in Berlin, there were three documents in circulation. Now it appears from comments from Zelenskyy that there are five documents, the details of which we are still waiting to gather. But certainly it\u2019s an evolving landscape with lots of difficult and nuanced pieces which we\u2019re still waiting to get more information on,\u201d McAlpine added.<\/p>\n

\"INTERACTIVE-WHO(Al Jazeera)Is a ceasefire truly \u2018closer than ever\u2019?<\/p>\n

Experts doubt it.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump has repeatedly claimed that a peace deal is close without sustainable agreement,\u201d Keir Giles, a Russian military expert at London think tank Chatham House, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Another foreign policy expert, Nathalie Tocci, believes \u201cit\u2019s extremely unlikely that a ceasefire is going to be reached now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that it\u2019s far more likely that we\u2019re going to remain in the context of ongoing war,\u201d Tocci, director at the Istituto Affari Internazionali, told Al Jazeera. She added that this is because issues of territory and security remain unresolved.<\/p>\n

Russia controls nearly 20 percent of eastern Ukraine and has been slowly gaining territory as Ukraine\u2019s military has been weakened by<\/a> desertions and dwindling military aid. Moscow annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea in 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably impossible that Ukrainians will voluntarily withdraw from these territories unless we will also see a withdrawal of Russian forces on the other side,\u201d Tocci told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Al Jazeera\u2019s McAlpine also said that one of the main sticking points is the question of territory.<\/p>\n

She added that Zelenskyy has recently been firm on not giving up the Ukrainian territory of Donbas (in the country\u2019s east). \u201cWe know that the Russian side is hoping to control the entirety of the Donbas region. Ukraine would prefer to draw the lines where they are,\u201d McAlpine said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecent polling here in Ukraine shows that 75 percent of Ukrainians reject withdrawal from the Donbas region.\u201d They back the idea of freezing the current front line.<\/p>\n

Giles from Chatham House said that there are still parallel negotiation tracks \u2013 one involving the US and Ukraine, and another between Ukraine and European nations. He added that there is no clear evidence that these efforts are fully coordinated or aligned in terms of strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no guarantee that anything agreed will be accepted by Russia, and reason to think that anything that was agreed is achievable,\u201d Giles added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe key ingredient to make a ceasefire possible remains exactly as it has always been. Russia will only agree to stop fighting if it feels that it will gain more from a ceasefire than it will from continuing to attack Ukraine,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Ukraine\"A woman grieves over the coffin of her son, a Ukrainian serviceman who was killed in fighting with Russian forces near Pokrovsk, during his funeral ceremony in Boiarka, Ukraine, on Wednesday, December 3, 2025 [Evgeniy Maloletka\/AP]What will end the war in Ukraine?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe answer to what will end the fighting remains the same that it always has been, for Russia to be beaten back and for Ukraine to be beaten into submission,\u201d Giles said.<\/p>\n

Giles explained that Russia and Ukraine can not agree on the same terms for a ceasefire because their war aims are incompatible and \u201cso far apart that they are exceptional in terms of modern wars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump has repeatedly echoed many of the demands by the Kremlin, including on territorial concessions. His initial 28-point plan<\/a> to end the war included a clause on amnesty for Russian war crimes. Zelenskyy has expressed his opposition to it.<\/p>\n

Giles said that after the 28-point plan, which has since been revised following pushback from European leaders, Russia feels it is at a disadvantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cRussia will only accept a ceasefire agreement if it believes it can violate at will and that facilitates its resumption of the war at a time of its choosing,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US President Donald Trump claimed on Monday that an agreement to end Russia\u2019s nearly four-year war against Ukraine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,12,5607,1076,11501,594,6797,5855,3,111,1206,963,1208,1049,21,19,22,20,25,1209,24],"class_list":["post-352223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-donald-trump","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-europe","tag-explainer","tag-france","tag-germany","tag-nato","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-russia","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-ukraine","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-us-canada","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}