Europe
ready to lead ‘multinational force’ in Ukraine, EU leaders say
Proposal
is part of new package of security guarantees, backed by the White House, that
could mark breakthrough in reaching peace deal
Andrew
Roth in Washington, Deborah Cole in Berlin and Shaun Walker in Warsaw
Mon 15
Dec 2025 21.26 GMT
Europe is
ready to lead a “multinational force” in Ukraine as part of a US proposal for a
peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, European leaders have said.
In a
statement, the leaders of the UK, France, Germany and eight other European
countries said that troops from a “coalition of the willing” with US support
could “assist in the regeneration of Ukraine’s forces, in securing Ukraine’s
skies, and in supporting safer seas, including through operating inside
Ukraine”.
The
proposal was part of a new package of security guarantees, backed by the White
House, that could mark a breakthrough in reaching a peace deal between Moscow
and Kyiv, US and European leaders have said. But they added that significant
differences remained over the future status of the Ukrainian territories
occupied by Russia.
Under the
proposal, Ukraine would have western support to maintain a standing army of
800,000 troops, the US would lead a “ceasefire monitoring and verification
mechanism” to provide early warning of any future attack, and the European
countries would also sign a “legally binding commitment, subject to national
procedures, to take measures to restore peace and security in the case of a
future armed attack”. Europe would also back Ukraine’s accession to the
European Union.
The deal
would effectively provide “article five-like” guarantees to Ukraine, according
to two US officials briefed on the negotiations, comparing the security
guarantees to those provided to Nato allies from foreign attacks.
The US
presented the new package at talks in Berlin this week with Ukraine’s
president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as senior diplomats and security
officials from European allies. The US officials said that they believed Russia
would accept the security guarantees presented at the talks, which would mark a
significant relaxation in the Kremlin’s demands for limitations on the size of
Ukraine’s army and opposition to troops from Nato countries operating in
Ukraine.
The
American delegation, which was led by the US envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, said Zelenskyy and European leaders had
responded positively to the White House’s latest proposal for security
guarantees resembling those given to Nato allies, and intended to prevent
Russia from resuming its invasion if a peace agreement is reached.
“I think
the Ukrainians would tell you, as would the Europeans, that this is the most
robust set of security protocols they have ever seen,” said one US official
briefed on the negotiations. “It is a very, very strong package. I think
hopefully the Russians are going to look at it and say to themselves: ‘That’s
OK, because we have no intention [of restarting the war].’ We’re going to take
them at their word.”
US
officials declined to give specific details of what that security package would
include and who would defend Ukraine if Russia resumed its invasion after a
peace deal was reached. They confirmed the US would not put boots on the ground
in Ukraine as part of the deal.
Nonetheless,
the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, told a news conference on Monday he
believed the two sides were the closest to a real peace process since Russia’s
large-scale invasion began in 2022.
“What the
US has placed on the table here in Berlin in terms of legal and material
guarantees is really considerable,” Merz said during a joint press conference
with Zelenskyy.
The
Ukrainian president said he welcomed the “productive” discussions, as Kyiv’s
top peace negotiator hailed “real progress” in the second round of talks in
Berlin.
The
security guarantees are considered a key factor of a potential peace deal.
Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, had said earlier that a deal between
Russia and Ukraine would fail if it did not include “robust” security
guarantees from the west.
“It’s
really important we attend to this in detail,” he said. “[Vladimir] Putin has
shown time and again that he will keep coming back for more if he sees the
chance.”
US
officials said on Monday they were still “brainstorming” the future status of
the occupied territories of Ukraine under a peace deal, adding that they were
considering these areas becoming an “economic free zone”. But they said there
remained significant differences on the control and status of the territories
taken by Russia.
“Ultimately,
if we can get that defined, then it will really get to [Russia and Ukraine] to
work out the final issues of sovereignty and to see if there’s a deal that can
be done between them,” said a US official briefed on the talks.
The two
sides were also not in agreement on the future operations of the Zaporizhzhia
nuclear power plant, which is located in Ukraine but is under Russian control.
US officials said they wanted the two sides to split the power produced by the
plant “50/50”. US negotiators claimed they had resolved “90%” of the disputes
between the Russian and Ukrainian sides.
Zelenskyy
described the talks with the US side as “not easy” but said they had made
headway. He said Russia was using its relentless strikes as leverage in
negotiations and noted that not a single power station in Ukraine had been
spared attack.
Rustem
Umerov, the secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine,
also struck an upbeat note on the discussions: “Over the past two days,
Ukrainian-US negotiations have been constructive and productive, with real
progress achieved,” he said.
Umerov
wrote on X that Witkoff and Kushner were “working extremely constructively to
help Ukraine find a way to a peace agreement that lasts”.
A German
government spokesperson said earlier that Witkoff and Kushner had also been
invited to the working dinner. Witkoff said in a social media post that “a lot
of progress was made” after he and Kushner met Zelenskyy for five-and-a-half
hours at Merz’s chancellery on Sunday, without disclosing details.
A picture
released by Merz’s team showed him sitting beside Zelenskyy in a gesture of
solidarity, across the table from Witkoff and Kushner, but the chancellor did
not join their talks.
Trump has
appeared increasingly impatient to bring about an end to four years of
fighting, which he at first sought by Thanksgiving at the end of November.
Zelenskyy has said the US leader is targeting Christmas as a deadline for a
“full understanding” on a peace plan.
The
search for viable terms for an end to the war has run into major obstacles,
including a dispute over control of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, which is
occupied mostly by Russian forces.
Zelenskyy
on Sunday expressed readiness to drop his country’s bid to join Nato if the US
and other western nations gave Kyiv legally binding security guarantees similar
to those offered to alliance members.
He also
said he hoped Washington would accept freezing the frontline where it was,
rather than Ukraine ceding the entire Donbas region, which comprises Donetsk
and Luhansk oblasts.
Putin has
described Ukraine’s drive to join Nato as a major threat to Moscow’s security
and a reason for launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022. “Naturally
this issue is one of the cornerstones and, of course, it is subject to special
discussion,” the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on Monday,
adding that Moscow was expecting a US briefing on the Berlin discussions when
they were over.
European
leaders stressed that the outcome of the talks on Ukraine would affect their
own countries’ security for decades to come. Merz said at the weekend that
Putin’s goal was “a fundamental change to the borders in Europe, the
restoration of the old Soviet Union within its borders”.
“If
Ukraine falls, he won’t stop,” the German chancellor told a conference of
fellow conservatives in Munich.
Russia
has denied it intends to attack Nato members.
In
London, meanwhile, the head of Britain’s foreign spy service, MI6, has warned
that Russia poses an “aggressive, expansionist” threat in her first speech
since taking office.
Blaise
Metreweli took over from Richard Moore in October, becoming the first woman to
lead MI6.
She said
Putin was not serious about trying to end the war in Ukraine, describing him as
“dragging out negotiations” and shifting the burden of the conflict on to his
own population.
The EU,
meanwhile, is scrambling this week to agree a plan on financing Ukraine in the
coming years by using frozen Russian assets. A leaders’ meeting is scheduled to
begin on Thursday and a deal still appears elusive.
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