Vladimir Putin has agreed to allow Ukraine’s allies to offer it a NATO-like security guarantee as part of an eventual deal to end the war, according to US special envoy Steve Witkoff.

Mr Witkoff said the Russian president agreed to the move when he met with Donald Trump in Alaska on Friday.

Speaking to CNN on Sunday, Mr Witkoff, who was by the US president’s side at the summit, said: “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.”

Article 5 is a core principle of the 32-member collective, which states that an armed attack against one or more of its members shall be considered an attack against all. It has only been invoked once, by the US, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

Russia has repeatedly insisted that Ukraine cannot be allowed to join NATO and has dismissed the idea that NATO member forces could be peacekeepers under some sort of ceasefire deal.

Mr Witkoff, who has previously met with Mr Putin to discuss an end to the Ukraine war, said Friday’s summit was the first time he had heard the Russian president agree to the suggestion of NATO-like protection – and called it “game-changing”.

His comments came as Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels.

The Ukrainian president said in a post on X: “This is a historic decision that the United States is ready to take part in security guarantees for Ukraine.

“Security guarantees, as a result of our joint work, must really be very practical, delivering protection on land, in the air, and at sea, and must be developed with Europe’s participation.”

Ms von der Leyen, speaking at a news conference with the Ukrainian president, said the European Union “is ready to do its share”.

EU leaders to join Zelenskyy at White House

Sunday afternoon also saw Ms von der Leyen and Mr Zelenskyy dial in to a meeting with the coalition of the willing, a peacekeeping alliance of European leaders – some of whom will accompany Mr Zelenskyy to meet with Mr Trump tomorrow.

Ms von der Leyen will be at the crunch talks in Washington DC, as will Sir Keir Starmer, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni.

Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte will also be in attendance, after the US president reportedly extended an invitation to European leaders.

Read more: Why is Zelenskyy bringing a posse of leaders?

Mr Putin has reportedly made demands to take control of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine during his summit with Mr Trump as a condition for ending the war.

In exchange, Russia would give up other Ukrainian territories held by its troops, according to several news reports citing sources close to the matter.

Russian troops currently occupy large parts of the two regions and, in September 2022, Moscow announced it was officially annexing them, alongside the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions, in a move rejected and condemned as illegal by the West.

Mr Trump is said to be planning to urge Mr Zelenskyy to agree to the conditions as part of a peace deal to end the war.

That’s despite the Ukrainian president previously ruling out formally handing any territory to Moscow, which he says would be impossible under the country’s constitution, and would deprive Ukraine of defensive lines and open the way for Moscow to conduct further offensives.

In coordinated statements following the Alaska summit, European leaders said Mr Zelenskyy must play a greater role in future talks, and that peace cannot be achieved without him.

The US president said the Washington talk with Mr Zelenskyy could potentially pave the way for a three-way meeting with Mr Putin.

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On Saturday, Downing Street insisted Sir Keir and other allies stand ready to support the next phase of talks to end the war.

“At the meeting that will take place at the White House tomorrow, the Prime Minister, with other European partners, stands ready to support this next phase of further talks and will reaffirm that his backing for Ukraine will continue as long as it takes,” a statement from No 10 said.

Vladimir Putin made demands to take control of key regions of Ukraine during his talks with Donald Trump, it has been widely reported, as a condition for ending the war.

During their summit in Alaska, the Russian leader is said to have told the US president he wants the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions – and would give up other Ukrainian territories held by his troops in exchange.

The plans were reported by several news outlets, citing sources close to the matter, as Mr Trump scheduled a further meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington DC for Monday. He has said this could potentially pave the way for a three-way meeting with Mr Putin.

Mr Trump reportedly backs the plans, according to some outlets – but Mr Zelenskyy has previously ruled out formally handing any territory to Moscow. Russia already controls a fifth of Ukraine, including about three-quarters of Donetsk province, which it first entered in 2014.

US-Russia talks on Ukraine – latest updates

Details of the plans emerged after little was revealed during the high-profile summit between the US and Russian leaders on Friday.

Despite threats by the US president beforehand, of sanctions for Russia should there be no agreement on a ceasefire, a short news briefing after the talks ended with no mention of a suspension of fighting, no announced agreement on how to end the war, and little clarity about the next steps.

On Saturday, Mr Trump appeared to change his stance on what he hopes to achieve in Ukraine, indicating he wants a permanent peace settlement rather than a ceasefire.

“It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up,” he said in a post on his social network site, Truth Social.

Trump: ‘Russia is a big power – they’re not’

In an interview with Fox News following the summit, Mr Trump signalled he and Putin had discussed land transfers and security guarantees for Ukraine, and had “largely agreed”. He said Ukraine has to made a deal, as “Russia is a very big power, and they’re not”.

Monday’s meeting at the White House will be the Ukrainian president’s second this year. His last descended into a fiery spat with Mr Trump and his vice president JD Vance, which saw him leave early.

After the fresh meeting was announced, Mr Zelenskyy in a post on X that he was grateful for the invitation.

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“It is important that everyone agrees there needs to be a conversation at the level of leaders to clarify all the details and determine which steps are necessary and will work,” he said.

However, he said Russia had rebuffed “numerous calls for a ceasefire and has not yet determined when it will stop the killing”, which “complicates the situation”.

Mr Zelenskyy continued: “If they lack the will to carry out a simple order to stop the strikes, it may take a lot of effort to get Russia to have the will to implement far greater – peaceful coexistence with its neighbours for decades.

“But together we are working for peace and security. Stopping the killing is a key element of stopping the war.”

Putin releases statement on summit

In a statement on the summit, Mr Putin described the talks as “timely and quite useful” – but said the “removal” of what he calls the “root causes” of the crisis “must underlie the settlement”.

He continued: “We definitely respect the US administration’s position which wants the hostilities to stop as soon as possible. So do we, and we would like to move forward with settling all issues by peaceful means.

“The conversation was very frank and substantive, which, in my view, moves us closer towards making necessary decisions.”

European leaders who make up the “coalition of the willing” are set to hold a conference call today ahead of the crunch talks between Mr Trump and Mr Zelenskyy.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will host the video conference.

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In a statement on Saturday,Sir Keir said Mr Trump’s efforts had “brought us closer than ever before to ending Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine” and that his leadership “in pursuit of an end to the killing should be commended”.

He said he supported the next phase of talks, but added: “In the meantime, until (Putin) stops his barbaric assault, we will keep tightening the screws on his war machine with even more sanctions.”

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military has reported an advance of up to 2km on the Sumy front in the country’s northeast.

“Zones of continuous enemy fire damage are being maintained,” the Ukrainian General Staff said on Telegram. “Ukrainian troops are repelling Russian forces”.

In the early hours of Sunday, a regional governor in Russia said a railway employee had been injured and a power line damaged by a Ukrainian drone attack.

The incident happened in the Voronezh region, Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.

No deal has been reached to end the war in Ukraine – but Donald Trump has said there are “many points” he and Vladimir Putin agreed on during their highly anticipated summit.

Following the meeting in Alaska, which lasted more than two-and-a-half hours, the two leaders gave a short media conference giving little detail about what had been discussed, and without taking questions.

Mr Trump described the meeting as “very productive” and said there were “many points that we agreed on… I would say a couple of big ones”.

Trump-Putin summit – latest updates

But there are a few left, he added. “Some are not that significant. One is probably the most significant, but we have a very good chance of getting there…

“We haven’t quite got there, we’ve made some headway. There’s no deal until there’s a deal.”

He has since suggested that negotiations should proceed directly to a peace deal, rather than purely a ceasefire agreement.

Mr Putin described the negotiations as “thorough and constructive” and said Russia was “seriously interested in putting an end” to the war in Ukraine. He also warned Europe not to “torpedo nascent progress”.

Following the summit, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he plans to travel to Washington DC on Monday following a “long and substantive” conversation” with Mr Trump.

In a joint statement, European leaders including Sir Keir Starmer said they “welcomed President Trump’s efforts to stop the killing in Ukraine” and said the so-called ‘coalition of the willing’ is “ready to play an active role”.

After much build-up to the summit – with the US president threatening “severe” consequences for Russia should it not go well – it was ultimately not clear whether the talks had produced meaningful steps towards a ceasefire in what has been the deadliest conflict in Europe in 80 years.

Mr Trump said he intended to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders, who were excluded from the discussions, to brief them.

Despite not reaching any major breakthrough, the US leader ended his remarks with a thank you, and said he would probably see Mr Putin again “very soon”.

When the Russian president suggested that “next time” would be Moscow, he responded by saying he might face criticism, but “I could see it possibly happening”.

The red carpet treatment

The news conference came after a grand arrival at the Elmendorf-Richardson military base in Anchorage, where the US president stepped down from Air Force One and later greeted his Russian counterpart with a handshake and smiles on a red carpet.

Mr Putin even travelled alongside Mr Trump in the presidential limousine, nicknamed “The Beast”.

It was the kind of reception typically reserved for close US allies, belying the bloodshed and the suffering in the war.

Before the talks, the two presidents ignored frantically-shouted questions from journalists – and Mr Putin appeared to frown when asked by one reporter if he would stop “killing civilians” in Ukraine, putting his hand to his ear as though to indicate he could not hear.

Our US correspondent Martha Kelner, on the ground in Alaska, said he was shouting “let’s go” – apparently in reference to getting the reporters out of the room.

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A ’10/10′ meeting

During his first day back in the White House in January, Mr Trump had pledged confidently to bring about an end to the war in Ukraine.

But seven months later, after infamously berating Mr Zelenskyy during a meeting at the Oval Office in February, and then stanching the flow of some US military assistance to Kyiv, he still does not appear to have brought a pause to the conflict.

In an interview with Fox News before leaving Alaska, Mr Trump described the meeting with Mr Putin as “warm” and gave it a “10/10”, but declined to give details about what they discussed.

He also insisted that the onus going forward could be on Mr Zelenskyy “to get it done”, but said there would also be some involvement from European nations.

What happens next?

Mr Trump has spoken with Mr Zelenskyy, Sir Keir Starmer and European leaders about the talks.

Following the call, Mr Zelenskyy reiterated the importance of involving Europe: “It is important that Europeans are involved at every stage to ensure reliable security guarantees together with America,” he said.

“We also discussed positive signals from the American side regarding participation in guaranteeing Ukraine’s security.”

In a joint statement, European leaders including Sir Keir said: “We are clear that Ukraine must have ironclad security guarantees to effectively defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“We welcome President Trump’s statement that the US is prepared to give security guarantees.

“The coalition of the willing is ready to play an active role. No limitations should be placed on Ukraine’s armed forces or on its cooperation with third countries. Russia cannot have a veto against Ukraine’s pathway to EU and NATO.”

Despite the US president’s efforts to bring about a ceasefire, Russian attacks on Ukraine have only intensified in the past few months.

On 9 July, Russia carried out its largest aerial attack on Ukraine since the start of the war, launching more than 740 drones and missiles.

Furthermore, Mr Zelenskyy has said Russia is preparing for new offensives.

Ahead of the summit, one of the key commanders of Ukraine’s drone forces told Sky News in a rare interview that there would be no let-up in its own long-range drone attacks on Russia until Moscow agrees to peace.