FT writes that the US wants to tie security guarantees to the withdrawal of the Ukrainian Forces from Donetsk region. The White House denies

The administration of the US President Donald Trump has made it clear to Ukraine that security guarantees from the United States depend on whether Kyiv agrees to a peace deal, which will likely involve the transfer of the Donetsk region to Russia.

This was reported by the Financial Times (FT), citing eight sources familiar with the negotiations.

Washington also hinted that it was ready to promise Ukraine more weapons to strengthen its army in peacetime if Kyiv agreed to withdraw its troops from the Donetsk region.

Ukrainian and European officials have called the US position an attempt to pressure Kyiv to make painful territorial concessions that Moscow demands in any deal.

A senior Ukrainian official said it was becoming increasingly unclear whether the US would make the commitment: “They stop every time they can sign security guarantees.”

White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly called the reports “completely false”. She said that “the only role of the United States in the peace process is to bring both sides together to reach an agreement”.

A person familiar with the US position said that Washington is not trying to impose any territorial concessions on Ukraine: “The US has said that security guarantees depend on both sides agreeing to a peace agreement, but the content of the peace agreement depends on Russia and Ukraine.”

• Russia regularly demands that Ukraine withdraw its troops from the Donetsk region. Russian representatives repeated the same demand before the trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi on January 23-24.
• President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the main topic of the negotiations was possible conditions for ending the war, but did not provide any specific details.

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