The US has dealt a major blow to Ukraine’s peace deal hopes as national security adviser Mike Waltz suggested on Sunday evening Kyiv should give up its hopes of joining NATO and reestablishing its 2014 borders. Speaking to Fox News, he suggested Ukraine give up its eastern territories lost to Russia, such as the Donbas region, as “this is going to be some type of territory-for-future-security guarantees [ceasefire deal]”. The security official added that a “permanent pathway into NATO, or permanent membership into NATO for Ukraine, is incredibly unlikely”.
This comes as Donald Trump, who reportedly wants a ceasefire within the coming weeks, confirmed direct talks with Vladimir Putin will take place on Tuesday. He said: “We will be talking about land. We will be talking about power plants … We have a lot of it already discussed very much by both sides, Ukraine and Russia. We are already talking about that, dividing up certain assets.”
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