US demands Ukraine sign peace deal with Russia before security guarantees are given

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has informed his European counterparts that Washington will only agree to provide Ukraine with security guarantees after a peace deal with Russia is signed, POLITICO reported on Wednesday.

According to the publication, the condition was included in proposals Washington passed on to Kyiv last week. However, while Ukraine considers security guarantees a cornerstone of any peace agreement, US President Donald Trump views them as an add-on to be discussed once the deal is signed.

Rubio also mentioned several other issues that needed to be addressed once the deal is concluded,  one source told POLITICO, adding that Kyiv’s European partners suspected that this was a reference to Ukraine’s territorial integrity and the use of Russian assets frozen in the West.

With the situation changing rapidly, some of Ukraine’s allies fear the Trump administration could “tip the scales” in Russia’s favour, POLITICO said, adding that one European diplomat had noted that the deal contained “nothing about human rights, humanitarian law, international law or principles” and that the US was “creating a new European ‘security architecture’ full of holes.”

The US State Department was quick to downplay that interpretation of Rubio’s comments, however, with White House spokesperson Anna Kelly later saying that any peace deal would have in-built security guarantees, according to POLITICO. 

“Secretary Rubio, along with the entire Trump administration, has clearly underscored that security guarantees would need to be part of any peace deal, as he has consistently outlined in both public and private,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said.