The U.S.-European peace plan to deter future Russian attacks on Ukraine calls for a more robust Ukrainian military, the deployment of European forces inside the country and increased use of American intelligence, according to officials familiar with drafts that detail the proposal.
American and European diplomats meeting with Ukraine’s leaders over the past two days in Berlin have mostly signed off on two documents that outline the security guarantees, the officials said publicly and privately.
The security documents are designed to serve as the cornerstone of a broader agreement aimed at reaching a cease-fire to end the nearly four-year-old conflict. They are also intended to persuade Ukraine to concede territory in a peace deal and give up on formal inclusion in NATO.
“We are seeing real and concrete progress,” Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said Tuesday. “That progress is made possible thanks to the alignment between Ukraine, Europe and the United States.”
Still, a broad cease-fire appears to remain out of reach for the moment, in part because Russia is not a party to these negotiations. Any agreement to end the fighting would require significant concessions from either President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine or President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. While Mr. Zelensky has concerns about the American proposals, especially on territorial concessions, Mr. Putin has indicated no flexibility at all in his demands.
A Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei A. Ryabkov, said on Tuesday that his government remains firm on demanding that Ukraine hand over the part of its Donbas region that Russia has not conquered and that it will not accept the presence of NATO-country troops in Ukraine.
U.S. officials said Monday that the territorial issue remains a roadblock but expressed confidence, despite Mr. Putin’s public comments, that he would eventually accept the presence of European forces in Ukraine not operating under the banner of NATO. They, like others interviewed for this article, spoke on condition of anonymity to freely discuss ongoing talks.
