U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner attended a major diplomatic gathering in Berlin on Monday to try to agree joint positions before any peace talks with Russia.
Speaking after Zelenskyy, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also hailed the commitments from the U.S. delegation.
“This is a truly far-reaching and substantial agreement, which we have not had before, namely that both Europe and the U.S. are jointly prepared — and President Zelenskyy has referred to Article 5 of the NATO Treaty — to give similar security guarantees to Ukraine,” Merz said.
“In my view, this is a really big step forward. And, as I said, the American side has also committed itself politically and, in perspective, legally to do this,” he added.
Kyiv still wants to see the details.
“Ukrainians are still trying to understand how this Article 5-style security guarantee would actually work. So far, they are still discussing the details, but it seems something has started moving forward at least,” a senior European official told POLITICO on condition of anonymity.
This story is being updated.
CLARIFICATION: This story has been updated with a direct translation of Zelenskyy’s remarks, replacing the original German translation during the press conference with Merz.