U.S. Ambassador to NATO says peace between Ukraine and Russia is “closer than ever”

Doha.- The United States Ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, assured this Saturday in Doha that a possible peace between Ukraine and Russia is “closer than ever”, although this will not be “at any price” for both parties.

“This is probably our best opportunity. That is to say, we are close. We are closer than ever to peace. And this is, as the (US, Donald) Trump president has said, a difficult situation to get to the right point,” he stated during a panel at the Doha Forum, which began today in the Qatari capital.

The ambassador visited Ukraine four weeks ago and noted that he saw “firsthand how technology is being deployed on the battlefield and how Ukraine continues to fight against the Russian invasion.” Although he clarified that “we should all promote peace”, but “obviously, it will not be peace at any price, because, ultimately, the Ukrainians will have to accept any agreement that is reached, and the Russians will have to demonstrate that they really want to end this war”, he concluded. The Governments of the United States and Ukraine agreed, after two days of meetings between negotiators from both nations, that any progress towards a peace agreement in the war depends on Russia demonstrating a serious and tangible commitment. The statement was made during the sixth meeting between Special Envoy for Peace, Steven Witkoff, and Jared Kushner with the Secretary of National Security and Defense of Ukraine, Rustem Umerov, and the Chief of the General Staff, General Andriy Hnatov.

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On the other hand, a U.S. delegation made up of two emissaries of President Donald Trump, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, traveled to Moscow at the beginning of this week to personally present to President Vladimir Putin the results of the previous round of contacts with the Ukrainians. Putin made it clear after that meeting that he will not renounce his territorial ambitions in Ukraine for the sake of peace. The U.S. presented a peace plan last month that included Russian demands such as the reduction of the Ukrainian Army, the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from all of Donbas, or Kyiv’s renunciation of joining NATO and the deployment of allied troops on its territory in the post-war period. Ukraine subsequently removed in a meeting of its negotiators with the Americans in Geneva the conditions it considered unacceptable from the document. The revised version of it has been rejected by Moscow as a basis for beginning direct negotiations.