Posted on 08/17/2025 8:24:06 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
Russian leader Vladimir Putin agreed to having the US and Europe provide Ukraine with NATO-style security guarantees as part of deal to end the war, President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said Sunday.
“We were able to win the following concession: That the United States could offer Article 5-like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in NATO,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
The compromise, which emerged from Trump’s Alaska summit with the Russian strongman, “was the first time we had ever heard the Russians agree to that.”
The arrangement Witkoff laid out would involve countries, including European allies and the US, agreeing to defend Ukraine if it is attacked in the future.
NATO’s Article 5 stipulates that an attack on one member should be treated as an attack on all — resulting in a collective defense.
One of Putin’s longtime grievances cited in the invasion of Ukraine was the country’s ambition of joining the EU and NATO to defend itself from Russian attacks.
A security guarantee to guard against future Russian attacks appears to be a key piece of the peace deal that Trump is pursuing.
However, Putin suggested China — a Kremlin ally — could be one of the security guarantors, Axios reported.
“Putin has said that a red flag is NATO admission,” he added. “We were discussing was assuming that that held, assuming that the Ukrainians could agree to that, and could live with.”
Back in 1994, Russia, the US, the UK and others agreed to the “Budapest Memorandum” with Ukraine, making security guarantees in exchange for Kyiv giving up its Soviet nuclear weapons.
Witkoff defended Trump’s apparent pivot away from pursuing a ceasefire in Ukraine, arguing that a full-fledged peace deal would end the war “quicker.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Interesting but I’m still going to take a wait and see.
Insanity.
The wait will last until Vlad breaks the agreement. Then what?
“The arrangement Witkoff laid out would involve countries, including European allies and the US, agreeing to defend Ukraine if it is attacked in the future.”
************
“European allies”. What a joke. Most of them are carrying huge debt loads and are in no position to help guarantee anything. Once again, they expect the U.S. to carry the burden for them. And they’ll likely be right unfortunately.
Exactly. But the cowards of Europe are not to be trusted.
Moments ago when the news came out that the European leaders were to join Trump and Zelinski in Washington, I published a reply that concluded:
“Everything in this visit turns on whether Trump will extend guarantees to Ukraine for a deal that Trump himself has hatched with Putin”
( https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/4335053/posts?page=43#43 )
This news, coming out minutes later to the effect that the US will supply “NATO-like” guarantees of the security of Ukraine, means that the deal is very likely to go through. Ukraine will have no practical option but to accept the deal, including loss of territory, because the sovereignty of the nation will be preserved, even if in rump form.
Donald Trump deserves praise for allegedly extending this guarantee that makes peace possible, subject to the observation that this is the guarantee that Zelinski sought in the fateful White House fiasco in which Trump humiliated Zelinski for demanding such a guarantee. Now Trump, if the report is to be believed, is willing to turn about-face and offer the guarantee some months later that might have ended this war then.
One further rather snarky observation is warranted: Trump will now have to reeducate the amen chorus to accept what they had all been conditioned to reject before,an American guarantee.
“Interesting but I’m still going to take a wait and see.”
**************
I’m waiting to see what the U.S. role will be. The Europeans only support things when they can get others to provide what they want.
There's the possibility that Russia will rearm and just attack again in a couple of years.
Macron from France should deploy 100,000 French Surrender Monkeys to
eventual DMZ in YouCrayne.
That will teach Pooty-Poo a lesson.
Could offer? What does that mean?
There is a big difference between could and will.
Why would Trump agree to get involved in a hot war in Ukraine under any circumstance?
Why would Putin agree to essentially allowing Ukraine de facto NATO membership when one of the reasons for the war was to prevent that?
This smells like BS.
You can be sure that if the U.S. agrees to Article 5 protections, the Z man will make it his 1st priority to stage a Russian attach on Ukraine protected territory to force U.S. boots on the ground and to posture U.S. nukes against Russian.
If we want WW3, then we should by all means agree to Article 5 protections for the Z man.
Is Witkoff a globalist stooge? Is he incompetent?
The French Foreign Legion aint surrender monkeys.
And they will most likely be the leading force on site if the negotiations are successful.
There have been a few former US special forces that ended up in the FFL. And they all said its extremely aggressive training- like being in prison while having a firearm issued.
Maybe we ought to have them train our military recruits. Might end up with an admirable fighting force again.
Not saying Witkoff is lying, but it seems very difficult to believe. Perhaps he got a bad translation of a statement.
Russia invaded Ukraine specifically because of the potential of “Article 5-like protection” for Ukraine.
That the Russians would give it up the requirement now does not square with reality.
They have a past history of Being Surrender Monkeys.
WW2 and the Start of Vietnam War for example.
Maybe today they are different. We shall see.
“Back in 1994, Russia, the US, the UK and others agreed to the “Budapest Memorandum” with Ukraine, making security guarantees in exchange for Kyiv giving up its Soviet nuclear weapons.”
Well, that wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on, no reason to think any agreement will be in the future, either.
“Interesting but I’m still going to take a wait and see.”
Exactly, I’ll wait to see what actually gets agreed to, or at least what Russia says on this subject.
...because Putin knows he’ll hang from a lamp post if he effectively agrees to let Ukraine enter NATO.
The French Foriegn Legion?
You need to do a little research on them.
You are badly mistaken.
I don't think the Russians even wanted this war in Ukraine.
“We” pushed them into a corner and then pretend like they're a rabid dog when they come out trying to bite. NATO expansion into Ukraine is an obvious unacceptable situation.
We won't even accept Panama having a Chinese civilian management of the canal. We see this as a national security threat to us and literally threaten invasion: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/pentagons-hegseth-visit-panama-canal-after-trump-threatens-take-it-back-2025-04-08/
When Biden did this, he caused a war: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukrainian-president-zelenskiy-holding-talks-with-biden-adviser-says-2021-12-09/
You are asking the Russian to accept something we would NEVER accept, and in fact we have not: Cuban missile crisis.
No major power wants another playing on their border, and you're asking Russia to accept the US (the worlds most powerful military) with NATO (the worlds most powerful military alliance), to potentially station hyper-sonic missiles (6 minutes time of flight to Moscow), nukes, missile defense, any number of bases, troops and their equipment, for an indefinite time period, on Russia's border.
If we gave Russia the same respect we give China today (we treat the Taiwan issue very delicately), we would not have this war.
This is a war where (((we))) made unilateral decisions affecting Russia and simply gambled that the cost of intervention would be too high and they would acquiescence.
Ukraine would be the one breaking the agreement. They will not stop with the bombings of trains and bridges, assassinations, and terror bombings, and they will claim no knowledge of who did it.
That’s the most likely violation of the agreement. Then what?
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