Ukrainian officials are attempting to bridge significant disagreements with President-elect Trump’s transition team during meetings in Washington.
The Wall Street Journal reports that President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is engaged in high-level discussions with Ukrainian officials in Washington, but Ukrainian NATO membership is unlikely to be a topic of consideration.
Andriy Yermak, head of office for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, met Wednesday with Trump’s nominee for special envoy to Russia and Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, and incoming National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.
While Kellogg has publicly voiced support for the Biden administration’s expedited weapons shipments to Ukraine, believing it will provide Trump with leverage in future talks with Moscow, the Journal notes that there’s little enthusiasm within the President-elect’s team to offer Ukraine NATO membership.
“The Trump team has shown minimal interest in offering Ukraine membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,” the publication reported, adding that Zelensky still views this as a “crucial security guarantee.”
Last week, a statement from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry asserted that membership in NATO was “the only genuine security guarantee” for the country and that Kiev would not accept “any alternatives, substitutes, or compromises” for full membership.
During his campaign, Trump repeatedly pledged to resolve the Ukraine conflict within “24 hours,” but provided limited details on his approach.
However, Reuters reported this week that his advisors have developed three potential plans to end the conflict, all involving Ukraine ceding territory to Moscow and abandoning its NATO aspirations.
According to the WSJ report, Yermak traveled to Washington prepared to convey Ukraine’s “willingness for peace.” However, a source familiar with Kiev’s stance told the Journal that it must be a “sustainable peace,” and a “temporary” agreement wouldn’t benefit either the US or Ukraine.
Lucian Kim, a Ukraine analyst at the International Crisis Group, told the Journal that Kiev might already acknowledge that NATO membership isn’t “imminent,” but suggested that it might not be wise to concede this point “before negotiations even begin.”
On Thursday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told CNN that Moscow remains open to hearing Trump’s plans, but hasn’t received any concrete proposals. He warned, however, that Russia would under no circumstances compromise its core national interests.
He also cautioned that the prospects for compromise with Ukraine are currently “zero” and that this won’t change until “people in Kiev begin to understand that Russia will not yield to their demands.”