US envoy Witkoff says Putin agreed to Nato-like security protections for Ukraine
‘We were able to win the following concession: that the US could offer Article 5-like protection, one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in Nato’
Russian leader Vladimir Putin agreed at his Alaska summit with President Donald Trump to allow the US and European allies to offer Ukraine a security guarantee resembling Nato’s collective defence mandate as part of an eventual deal to end the war, US envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday.
“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,” he said on CNN’s State of the Union programme. Witkoff said it was the first time he had heard Putin agree to that.
Zelensky also hailed the “historic decision”.
“Security guarantees, as a result of our joint work, must really be very practical, delivering protection on land, in the air, and at sea, and must be developed with Europe’s participation,” the Ukrainian leader said on social media.
Witkoff, offering some of the first details of what was discussed at Friday’s summit in Alaska, said the two sides agreed to “robust security guarantees that I would describe as game-changing”.