US envoy Steve Witkoff said that Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to allow NATO-style security guarantees for Ukraine as part of a potential peace deal, describing it as a “major breakthrough.”
Talking to CNN on Sunday, he said that the agreement is a workaround for Russia’s insistence that Ukraine never join NATO.
“We got to an agreement that the US and other European nations could effectively offer Article 5-like language to cover a security guarantee,” he said.
“Putin has said that a red flag is NATO admission. And so what we were discussing was assuming that that held, assuming that the Ukrainians could agree to that and could live with that – and everything is going to be about what the Ukrainians can live with – but assuming they could, we were able to win the following concession that the US could offer Article 5-like protection,” Witkoff added.
He revealed it was the “first time we had ever heard the Russians agree” to such a provision being included in a peace deal.
Witkoff also said that Putin made concessions on “land swaps” for Ukraine. While details were not specified, he suggested Moscow is now considering exchanges along current front lines rather than the administrative boundaries of the five regions long in Putin’s sights.
“The Russians made some concessions at the table with regard to all five of those regions,” he said.
The envoy described the summit in Alaska as a turning point that shifted Trump’s focus away from an immediate ceasefire toward a broader peace deal.
“We are intent on trying to hammer out a peace deal that ends the fighting permanently very, very quickly. Quicker than a ceasefire,” Witkoff said.
“We cut through all kinds of issues that would have to be discussed and agreed to during a ceasefire,” he added.
Witkoff said Russia had shown unprecedented accommodation compared with previous talks.
“For the first time, we are seeing accommodation more than we’ve seen in the past, certainly more than we saw in the last administration. That’s encouraging. Now we have to build on that, and we have to get a deal for the Ukrainians,” he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, meanwhile, stressed that any negotiations must start at the current front lines.
“The contact line is the best line for talking. Russia is still unsuccessful in Donetsk region. Putin has been unable to take it for 12 years, and the Constitution of Ukraine makes it impossible to give up territory or trade land,” Zelensky said during a news conference in Brussels alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
“Since the territorial issue is so important, it should be discussed only by the leaders of Ukraine and Russia and the trilateral Ukraine-US-Russia. So far, Russia gives no sign that trilateral will happen, and if Russia refuses, then new sanctions must follow,” he added.
Witkoff said the proposed security guarantees are “robust” and “game-changing” for Ukraine.
This news story might be updated as more information becomes available.