Chris Lunday, Jacopo Barigazzi and Dan Bloom
Despite pressure from Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is clear his country will only agree to a peace deal with Russia if it's backed by iron-clad security guarantees.
Trump personally told Zelenskyy and European leaders during their Monday meeting that Ukraine will have “Article 5-like” NATO protections, but omitted any specifics.
On Tuesday, the "coalition of the willing" of Kyiv's allies tackled the issue, while U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is leading a commission with Ukrainian and European officials to hammer out security guarantees.
Planning teams are meeting "in the coming days to further strengthen plans to deliver robust security guarantees and prepare for the deployment of a reassurance force if the hostilities ended," said a Tuesday statement from U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
It's a massive problem — and one that Kyiv's allies have taken on numerous times over the last three years without ever coming up with an answer.
The most obvious solution — and the one that Kyiv really wants — is to allow Ukraine to join NATO, where it would be protected by the alliance's Article 5 common defense pact. But the United States (backed quietly by some European countries) has ruled that out.
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