Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said negotiations made it “for the first time fully clear that Americans, Europeans and Ukraine are on the same side,” and, for the first time, he underscored Washington’s role in ensuring Ukraine’s security.
If Russia launches a new attack on Ukraine, the United States will deliver a military response, Tusk said in an interview, according to Onet.
“For the first time I’m hearing this from American negotiators, and Steve Witkoff stated very clearly that America commits to provide security guarantees to Ukraine in such a way that Russians will have no doubt the American response will be military if Russia attacks Ukraine again. So, in a sense, it resembles Article 5, but I wouldn’t refer directly to Article 5 because that could only complicate further talks. Still, the declaration we heard today was truly far-reaching,” Tusk said.
He added that, during the talks, “for the first time it became fully evident that Americans, Europeans and Ukraine are on one side.”
According to Tusk, the only real chance to convince Russia to start serious talks about ending the war — or at least a ceasefire — is for the entire West to unite. “It’s crucial that together with the Americans and Ukrainians we act as allies so that Russians and Putin see no wedge can be driven between these three sides,” he said. He added that Americans are convinced they can, together with Europeans, build serious security guarantees for Ukraine.
European leaders have proposed a six-point plan of security guarantees for Ukraine, including: maintaining the size of Ukraine’s armed forces at up to 800,000 troops in peacetime; Europe-led “multinational forces” formed by a “coalition of the willing” with Washington’s backing; a ceasefire compliance mechanism led by the United States; legally binding security guarantees; investment in Ukraine’s reconstruction; and strong support for Ukraine’s EU membership bid.
Tusk said potential territorial concessions remain an open and very difficult question that requires serious consideration by Ukraine. He stressed Poland will not exert any pressure on this and that any decision must result solely from Ukrainians’ own assessment and calculations. “Our task is to support them in these talks so there is no triumph for Russia in this standoff. But it remains a very difficult task,” he said.
Asked about international military forces in Ukraine as a security guarantee, Tusk said Poland will have other tasks. “In any case, Poland will be a key hub — not only Jasionka, but also our ports, the entire logistics for Ukraine’s reconstruction,” he said. At the same time, Poland will decide “where to deploy troops and where not,” he added.
Tusk said an agreement that would allow the EU to use frozen Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine is “still a very long way off.” “At the moment we have a decision that allows Russian assets to be frozen forever… But from that point to potentially using these funds for Ukraine’s reconstruction — let alone military support — is still light-years away,” he acknowledged.
He said Thursday’s Brussels summit will not approve allocating those funds to Ukraine, though an agreement to finance Ukraine for the next two years is expected.
Asked whether the U.S. position matches Europe’s on this issue, Tusk said “the difference of opinions is quite obvious.” Washington urges not to raise the topic because it affects negotiations. “The Americans say: leave these Russian assets alone, because it’s hard to sit down with Putin and say, ‘Let’s compromise, but we’ll take your money.’ That’s the American argument for being very cautious and not pushing things to the brink,” Tusk said.
At the same time, he added, the Americans would be interested in using the money “differently.” He allowed that the U.S. might also use part of Russia’s assets, but only with prior agreement from the Kremlin. “It sometimes turns out Americans still take a businesslike approach to this issue… It’s hard to speak of a unified European-American position here,” he said.
Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine does not want to give up Donbas and will not recognize those territories as Russian, either de jure or de facto.
