Washington/London, 16 December (H.S.): US President Donald Trump proclaimed on Monday that an accord to halt Russia's protracted invasion of Ukraine stands nearer to fruition than at any juncture, heralding very long and very good talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky and European counterparts including Britain's Keir Starmer, France's Emmanuel Macron, Germany's Friedrich Merz, and NATO chief Mark Rutte.

These sanguine assertions emanated from the Oval Office amid parallel deliberations in Berlin, where Zelensky convened with Trump's emissaries—special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner—for a second consecutive day, grappling with thorny issues of territorial integrity and post-ceasefire bulwarks.

Zelensky acknowledged progress yet underscored persistent divergences, particularly over ceding eastern Donbas enclaves—Donetsk and Luhansk, where Moscow holds sway over roughly 80% and nearly all, per the Institute for the Study of War—insisting Kyiv rebuffs such capitulations.

Trump, eschewing Ukraine's NATO accession while deeming territorial compromise inexorable, pivoted to Article Five-like safeguards mirroring the alliance's collective defence clause, buttressed by a US-led verification apparatus for ceasefire breaches.

European principals, in a unified communiqué, championed a multinational constabulary—European-led yet US-anchored—to patrol Ukraine, reconstruct its forces to a 800,000-strong peacetime array, secure airspace and seas, and deter recidivism.

Chancellor Merz lauded Washington's substantial legal and material pledges as truly remarkable, igniting the greatest diplomatic momentum since the war's outbreak and a viable real peace process, though Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov demanded elucidation of Berlin's overtures, with Moscow clinging to territorial maximalism and NATO abjuration.

As these overtures unfold, the onus intensifies on Kyiv to embrace terms lest guarantees evaporate, amid Trump's entreaties for expedition.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar