U.S. envoy says Putin agreed to safety protections for Ukraine as a part of Trump summit

Special U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff stated Sunday (August 17, 2025) that Russian chief Vladimir Putin agreed at his summit with President Donald Trump to permit the U.S. and European allies to supply Ukraine a safety assure resembling NATO’s collective defence mandate as a part of an eventual deal to finish the three and a half yr battle.

“We have been capable of win the next concession: That the United States may supply Article 5-like safety, which is likely one of the actual the explanation why Ukraine desires to be in NATO,” he stated on CNN‘s “State of the Union.” Mr. Witkoff stated it was the primary time he had heard Putin conform to that.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, talking at a information convention in Brussels with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, stated that “we welcome President Trump’s willingness to contribute to Article 5-like safety ensures for Ukraine and the Coalition of the keen’ — together with the European Union — is able to do its share.”

Mr. Witkoff, providing a number of the first particulars of what was mentioned at Friday’s (August 15, 2025) summit in Alaska, stated the 2 sides agreed to “strong safety ensures that I’d describe as game-changing.” He added that Russia stated that it could make a legislative dedication to not go after any further territory in Ukraine.

Mr. Zelenskyy thanked the United States for current alerts that Washington is keen to help safety ensures for Ukraine, however stated the main points remained unclear.

“It is necessary that America agrees to work with Europe to offer safety ensures for Ukraine,” he stated, “But there are not any particulars the way it will work, and what America’s position will likely be, Europe’s position will likely be and what the EU can do, and that is our fundamental process, we want safety to work in apply like Article 5 of NATO, and we think about EU accession to be a part of the safety ensures.”

Mr. Witkoff defended Mr. Trump’s resolution to desert his push for Russia to conform to a direct ceasefire, saying the president had pivoted towards a peace deal as a result of a lot progress was made.

“We lined virtually all the opposite points vital for a peace deal,” Mr. Witkoff stated, with out elaborating.

“We started to see some moderation in the best way they’re interested by attending to a ultimate peace deal,” he stated.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted there can be “further penalties” as Mr. Trump warned earlier than assembly with Mr. Putin, in the event that they failed to achieve a ceasefire. But Mr. Rubio famous that there wasn’t going to be any kind of deal on a truce reached when Ukraine wasn’t on the talks.

“Now, finally, if there is not a peace settlement, if there is not an finish of this battle, the president’s been clear, there are going to be penalties,” Mr. Rubio stated on ABC’s “This Week.”

“But we’re making an attempt to keep away from that. And the best way we’re making an attempt to keep away from these penalties is with an excellent higher consequence, which is peace, the tip of hostilities.”

He additionally stated “we’re not on the precipice of a peace settlement” and that getting there wouldn’t be straightforward and would take a whole lot of work.

“We made progress within the sense that we recognized potential areas of settlement, however there stay some huge areas of disagreement. So we’re nonetheless a protracted methods off,” Mr. Rubio stated