BERLIN: A deal on a ceasefire in Ukraine is closer than ever, President Donald Trump said on Monday, amid Ukraine’s resistance to US pressure at talks in Berlin to cede its mineral-rich Donbas region to Russia.

Washington has offered to provide Nato-style security guarantees for Kyiv, while Britain, France and Germany proposed the deployment of a European force to monitor a ceasefire

Envoys sent by President Trump made the unprecedented guarantee at talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Berlin, but warned such a deal would not be on the table forever.

European and US negotiators reported progress at the talks, but a deal on territorial concessions remained elusive. The talks in the German capital have sparked some optimism from European leaders on a path to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two. However, Moscow is yet to agree to any of the changes discussed in Germany and has not indicated any willingness to do so.

The US is also leaning on Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the Donbas region, an official familiar with the matter said, in what would be a massive concession that could cause a ferocious backlash in Ukraine.

Painful concessions

Calling the issue of territorial concessions “painful”, Zelensky told reporters later: “Frankly speaking, we still have different positions.”

But he said he believed US mediators would help find a compromise.

Kyiv’s negotiators will continue consultations with US counterparts, he said, adding that Ukraine needed a concrete understanding on security guarantees, including the monitoring of a ceasefire, before making any decisions related to the front lines.

“I do not think that the (US) has demanded anything,” Zelensky said.

“I see us as strategic partners, so I would say that we have heard about the issue of territories in relation to Russia’s vision or Russia’s demands from the (US). We see this as demands from the Russian Federation.”

US officials told reporters by conference call they had secured agreement on 90 per cent of the issues. Though longstanding territorial issues remain, one said, “we’ve got multiple different solutions to bridge the gap that we are suggesting to them”.

Ukraine has said previously it would not cede territory to Russia, which has taken almost 20pc of the country in its east and south since its Feb 2022 invasion.

A European source briefed on the latest talks said Russia had not yet budged on its territorial demands. “The atmosphere is good but the goals remain quite far apart on the core.”

Zelensky has been holding talks in Berlin with US envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner as well as European leaders. Kyiv is under intense pressure from Trump to make concessions to Russia.

“For the first time since the war began, the possibility of a ceasefire is conceivable,” said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who hosted the meetings, in a post on X.

A US official told reporters later that, under the deal being discussed in Berlin, Ukraine would receive security guarantees similar to those provided in Article 5 of the Nato treaty, which requires the alliance to come to the defence of any member that comes under attack.

Another US official said Russia was open to Ukraine joining the European Union and that Trump wanted to prevent Russia from encroaching further westwards in Europe.

One official said security guarantees, including deconfliction and oversight of any deal, were the major focus of Monday’s talks and that an Article 5-like guarantee was something Trump believed he could get Moscow to accept.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2025