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By Shane Croucher
Senior Editor
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A top Ukrainian security official involved in talks with envoys of U.S. President Donald Trump on ending Russia's war said "real progress" had been made following the latest round of discussions in Berlin.
There is a sense of slow but gathering momentum towards a settlement on Ukraine, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signalling movement on NATO membership and elections. He has come under greater pressure from Trump to make painful compromises because Kyiv is slowly losing territory, though Russia's advantage has come at a huge cost to the country.
But there are still acute differences with Russia on territorial concessions and security guarantees, and the Kremlin has shown little movement on its own demands, threatening to achieve its goals on the battlefield if it cannot win them through diplomacy. Trump, making ground with Ukraine, must also convince Russia to accept peace over war.
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"Over the past two days, Ukrainian-US negotiations have been constructive and productive, with real progress achieved," said Rustem Umerov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, in a post on X.
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"We hope we will reach an agreement that will bring us closer to peace by the end of the day. There is a lot of noise and anonymous speculation in the media right now. Please don’t fall for rumors and provocations.
"The American team led by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are working extremely constructively to help Ukraine find a way to a peace agreement that lasts. The Ukrainian team is enormously grateful to President Trump and his team for all the efforts they are putting in."
Russia Says No Deadlines on Peace Deal
The Kremlin had earlier said it was awaiting the outcome of the U.S.-Ukraine discussions in Berlin. It also rejected the idea of deadlines for a peace agreement amid reports that Trump is hoping for a deal by Christmas.
"I am not prepared to speak about any timelines," said Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Monday. "I think that doing so right now would be the most thankless task," Peskov added, originally in Russian, state news agency TASS reported.
Peskov also welcomed the news that Zelensky had reportedly dropped Ukraine's ambitions to join NATO, the Western defensive alliance, which the Kremlin has described as one of the "root causes" of the conflict. Russia sees NATO as a major security threat, though European allies say they are the ones at risk of invasion and attack from Moscow.
"Naturally, this question is one of the cornerstones, and it requires special discussion against the backdrop of the others," Peskov said. "That is precisely what the negotiation process consists of—a process which, I would like to emphasize once again, we do not want to conduct in a megaphone format."
Zelensky is hoping to secure Western security guarantees under any peace deal.
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