Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated on Thursday that the text of a bilateral security guarantee between Kyiv and Washington is "essentially ready" to be finalised with U.S. President Donald Trump.
As a key component of any post-war settlement, Ukraine has sought robust guarantees that commit the U.S. and other Western allies to come to Ukraine's aid in the event of another Russian invasion.
Ukrainian and U.S. diplomats, along with a coalition of Ukraine's allies, have been negotiating in Paris this week to resolve the remaining disagreements in a peace framework that Washington aims to finalise with Kyiv before presenting it to Russia. On Tuesday, the U.S. officially endorsed the idea of providing security guarantees to Ukraine for the first time.
"The bilateral document on security guarantees for Ukraine is now essentially ready for finalisation at the highest level with the president (Trump)," Zelenskyy said in a post on X.
He mentioned that Wednesday's meetings of Ukrainian and U.S. representatives in Paris addressed "complex issues" regarding the framework under discussion to end the nearly four-year conflict, and that Kyiv had put forward its solutions to these challenges.
The Ukrainian president called for increased pressure on Russia after further missile attacks on energy infrastructure on Wednesday, arguing that the credibility of future security guarantees must be demonstrated by a response at this stage.
Under Trump, Washington has shifted its stance from being a strong supporter of Kyiv to a broker, urging both sides to agree on peace, and will seek to get Moscow to commit to the deal it negotiates with Ukraine.
Zelenskyy noted that while 90% of the framework is agreed, significant issues remain regarding control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and Russian demands for Ukraine to cede a strategically important area in eastern Ukraine that Moscow has failed to capture over almost four years of war.
"We understand that the American side will engage with Russia, and we expect feedback on whether the aggressor is genuinely willing to end the war," Zelenskyy wrote on X.
He added that the teams also discussed documents concerning Ukraine's post-war recovery and economic development.
Last year, the World Bank estimated that the cost of Ukraine's reconstruction and recovery would be $524 billion, while the Trump administration has sought to leverage economic benefits and privileged post-war access for the U.S. in Ukraine.
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