US President Donald Trump could offer NATO-like protection of Ukraine, and Russia is open to the idea, one of his top foreign policy officials said on Sunday (Aug 17) ahead of a meeting with Ukraine and European leaders to hammer out details of possible security guarantees for Kyiv.
“We were able to win the following concession, that the United States could offer Article 5-like protection,” Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to Russia, told CNN’s “State of the Union” program. “The United States could offer Article 5 protection, which was the first time we had ever heard the Russians agree to that.”
Witkoff was referring to Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which regards any attack against one of its 32 members as an attack on all. He suggested that a security guarantee of that scale could be offered to Ukraine in lieu of NATO membership, which Putin has ruled out.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has been gradually advancing for months in the deadliest war in Europe for 80 years,
Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who were both in the room when Trump met Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, gave a series of TV interviews ahead of a Monday meeting in Washington with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and leaders of some European allies.
“We made some progress, we believe, and now we have to follow up on that progress,” Rubio told CNN’s “State of the Union” about the meeting with Putin. “Ultimately, where this should lead is to a meeting between the three leaders, between Zelenskyy, Putin and President Trump, where we can finalize, but we got to get this thing closer before we get to that point.”
Russian officials are opposed to Western troops in Ukraine, but have not ruled out a security guarantee for Kyiv. Speaking during a joint media appearance with Trump after their nearly three-hour long meeting, Putin said on Friday: “I agree with President Trump. He said today that Ukraine’s security must be ensured by all means. Of course, we are ready to work on this.”
Witkoff told “Fox News Sunday” that Russia had also agreed to passing a law against taking any more of Ukraine by force.
