…Says Kyiv‘ll join EU 2027

By Nkiruka Nnorom, with agency reports

Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has said that the long-awaited document on U.S. security guarantees for the country is 100 percent ready for signing, with Kyiv now waiting for its American partners to confirm the date and place before the agreement moves to ratification in both the U.S. Congress and the Ukrainian parliament.

“For us, security guarantees are first and foremost guarantees of security from the United States. The document is 100 percent ready,” Zelenskyy said at a joint press conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, with the presidents of Lithuania and Poland, according to a translation of his remarks from Reuters.

Zelenskyy reiterated at the press conference that Ukraine views membership in the European Union as another core security guarantee and aimed to join the bloc by 2027, the Ukrainian president’s office said in a statement on its website.

His remarks come after Ukraine, Russia and the United States held trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi for two days over the weekend.

Zelenskyy said on X that the discussions, which involved political and military representatives from all three sides, were constructive and focused on potential parameters for ending his country’s war with Russia.

The talks in the United Arab Emirates followed a meeting in Moscow on Thursday between Russian President, Vladimir Putin, U.S. Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner and US Head of the Federal Acquisition Service, Josh Gruenbaum.

Putin’s aide, Yuri Ushakov, said the “extremely frank” discussions lasted roughly four hours and included U.S. officials updating Moscow on their recent conversations with Ukrainian and European leaders, according to a summary of the meeting from the Kremlin.

Territorial issues remain a key obstacle in the negotiations, with Moscow pressing Kyiv to relinquish parts of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region that Russian forces do not fully control.

U.S. Officials told Axios that negotiations examined the full range of unresolved issues, ranging from Russia’s territorial demands in the Donbas to control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and potential steps to prevent a return to fighting.

The outlet quoted another U.S. official as saying that the second round of talks is scheduled to take place on Feb. 1.