European Leaders To Join Monday’s Zelensky-Trump Talks, Want 'Article 5-Type’ Security Guarantees

Ahead of the planned Monday meeting between President Trump and Ukraine’s Zelensky in the Oval Office, which will also have the attendance and participation of a growing list of European and NATO leaders, there’s increasing talk of seeking American-supported „Article 5-style” security guarantees for Ukraine as part of any broader peace deal with Russia.

According to CNN, citing a senior European official, the proposed plan wouldn’t involve NATO directly – and would effectively remove the question of membership in the military alliance – but would aim to offer Ukraine protections similar to NATO’s collective defense clause.

Via The Associated Press

The specifics of the proposal remain undisclosed and unclear, and there’s also the practical reality and major hurdle of just how such 'guarantees’ would be enforced.

The Kremlin would likely balk at such a condition, given Russian leadership has said it would never allow any Western troop deployment or NATO-style force in Ukraine.

There has actually for years throughout the grinding war been talk among European capitals of the idea of deploying a „reassurance force” in Ukraine.

One thing that all the Western allies agree on at this early stage is that the initiative would never get off the ground without the United States officially backing and supporting it. And yet if the European leaders going to the White House lobby hard for this, it’s almost certain this would break the negotiating process with Russia.

For Moscow, assurance of permanent Ukrainian neutrality remains a top priority, and so talk of an Article-5 style system which would 'protect’ Ukraine in the instance of future Russian attacks is likely to a complete non-starter as an option.

But it’s especially the hawks which are pushing this, and likely Moscow is going to see it as simply NATO placing its security blanket over Kiev under a different guise, or just under the cover of differing semantics.

On Sunday, more and more European leaders have confirmed they will be joining Ukrainian President Zelensky on his trip to the White House on Monday.

According to a BBC list, the below top officials have confirmed they will be attending:

• UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer
• Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz
• Finnish President Alexander Stubb
• French President Emmanuel Macron
• Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte
• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen

This comes after most leaders on this list have strongly complained that Europe and even Ukraine have been left behind, and cut out of the negotiating process. They back Zelensky who says all decisions taken without direct Ukrainian participation are 'stillborn’ on arrival.

President Trump’s hope is that this swiftly moving process of talks which started with Putin in Alaska on Friday will lead to a final, and permanent peace settlement to end the war. But much of the entire Western establishment – whether government officials or the mainstream press – seems to want this process to fail…

The bourgeois press thinks the real problem with Putin is that he just needs a good therapist pic.twitter.com/T56qpm3Cnk

— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) August 17, 2025

Trump said on social media on Saturday, „President Zelenskyy will be coming to D.C., the Oval Office, on Monday afternoon. If all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin. Potentially, millions of people’s lives will be saved. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”