Trump hints at ‘big progress on Russia’ as envoy outlines Ukraine security offer

Later, US special envoy Steve Witkoff told CNN that Putin had agreed the United States and European allies could give Ukraine a security guarantee similar to NATO’s collective defence clause.

“We were able to win the following concession: that the United States could offer Article 5-like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in NATO,” Witkoff said on State of the Union. He described it as the first time he had heard Putin agree to such a provision.

Witkoff explained that this arrangement was designed as a compromise. “Putin has said that a red flag is NATO admission,” he said. “So what we were discussing was … that the United States and other European nations could effectively offer Article 5-like language to cover a security guarantee.”

He added that any deal would ultimately depend on whether Ukraine accepts the proposal.

“Now, ultimately, if there isn’t a peace agreement, if there isn’t an end of this war, the president’s been clear, there are going to be consequences,” Rubio said on ABC’s This Week. “But we’re trying to avoid that. And the way we’re trying to avoid those consequences is with an even better consequence, which is peace, the end of hostilities.”

“We’re not at the precipice of a peace agreement” and getting there “would not be easy and would take a lot of work.”

“We made progress in the sense that we identified potential areas of agreement, but there remain some big areas of disagreement. So we’re still a long ways off,” Rubio said.

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