Zelenskyy, US Envoys Meet In Berlin As Ukraine Peace Talks Continue

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday resumed talks with US President Donald Trump’s envoys in Berlin after the US said a “lot of progress” has been made on ending the war with Russia.

According

to Reuters, Zelenskyy again met US envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner after five hours of talks on Sunday, with other European leaders also holding meetings in the German capital throughout the day.

During my meeting with Federal President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier, I expressed my gratitude for Germany’s leadership in supporting our people.

I briefed the President on our work with the United States aimed at achieving a dignified peace, reliable security guarantees,… pic.twitter.com/rfv2lED9i2

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) December 15, 2025

On Sunday, Zelenskyy announced that he has relinquished the ambition of joining the NATO military alliance if Western security is guaranteed.

“From the very beginning, Ukraine’s desire was to join NATO, these are real security guarantees. Some partners from the US and Europe did not support this direction,” he said in reply to questions from reporters in a WhatsApp chat.

Reuters quoted him saying that the US and European and other partners’ security guarantees instead of NATO membership were a compromise on Ukraine’s side.

In a post on X, he said: “There is a great deal of work under way on the diplomatic track right now” but did not divulge details. His office later said the talks had ended.

According to Reuters, Monday’s talks come at the start of a pivotal week for Europe, with an EU summit on Thursday set to decide whether it can underwrite a massive loan to Ukraine with frozen Russian central bank assets.

The meeting in Brussels was held on Monday to agree on new sanctions targeting the Russian shadow fleet of oil tankers.

“The most important thing for us is now to ensure we can finance Ukraine,” said Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen. “We must take a decision to ensure Ukraine is in a position to continue its freedom fight and to show the rest of the world that Europe is a strong player. Otherwise we will give in to the picture painted by the American president, that Europe is weak.”

This announcement marks a major shift for Ukraine as it had continued its fight to join NATO as a safeguard against Russian attacks and even has such an aspiration included in its constitution.

According to Reuters, this move meets one of Russia’s war aims, although Kyiv has so far held firm against ceding territory to Moscow.

Russian President Vladimir Putin repeatedly demanded Ukraine to officially renounce its aim to be part of NATO and withdraw troops from the about 10% of Donbas which Kyiv still controls. They even pressed for Ukraine to be a neutral country and no presence of NATO troops in Ukraine.

Reuters quoted Russian sources saying earlier this year that Putin wants a “written” pledge by major Western powers not to enlarge the US-led NATO alliance eastwards – shorthand for formally ruling out membership to Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and other former Soviet republics.