WASHINGTON, Jan 27 (Reuters) – The United States has told Ukraine that it must sign a peace deal with Russia in order to receive U.S. security guarantees, a source familiar with internal discussions told Reuters on Tuesday.
Ukraine views U.S. security guarantees as key to any solution to end Russia’s four-year invasion of Ukraine. The United States facilitated talks between Ukrainian and Russian envoys in Abu Dhabi over the weekend, and U.S. officials said progress was being made toward a deal.
The Financial Times reported that the Trump administration has sent a signal to Ukraine that U.S. security guarantees depend on Kyiv agreeing to a peace deal, which may require it to cede the Donbas region to Russia.
But sources who spoke to Reuters said the United States had not told Ukraine what must be included in a peace deal and considered the suggestion that Washington was trying to force Ukraine to make concessions to Russia misleading.
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators are due to meet again in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, possibly with the participation of U.S. officials. U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner ended talks over the weekend optimistic that a deal could be reached soon.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that the U.S. document on Ukraine’s security guarantees was “100% ready” and that Kyiv was currently waiting for the time and place to sign the document.
Zelensky has consistently said Ukraine’s territorial integrity must be preserved in any peace deal to end the war.
A senior Ukrainian official told the Financial Times that Ukraine was increasingly unsure whether Washington would commit to security guarantees. “It stops every time a security bond is signed.”
The Kremlin said on Monday that territorial issues remained crucial to any deal to end the war in Ukraine, TASS news agency reported.
(Reporting by Steve Holland in Washington and Bipasha ‌Dey in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Michael Perry, Franklin Paul and Matthew Lewis)
