US asks Russia to agree to NATO-like backing for Ukraine

 American officials are asking Moscow if it would accept security guarantees for Ukraine as part of a peace deal to end the war, a shocking request to the country that launched the unprovoked invasion.

The U.S. had previously floated the idea of NATO-like security guarantees, which require alliance members to come to the defense of others, known as Article 5. But American officials said that they would formally ask Russia to consider the proposal, according to two senior administration officials — the first time they have done so.

The remarkable inquiry will likely come Tuesday at the start of two days of talks in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, with the U.S., Russia and Ukraine.

“We’ve asked the Russians for us to be able to give an Article 4 and an Article 5-like security guarantee to Ukraine, along with NATO providing the same,” said a senior official, who, like others, was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations.

It is unclear how the U.S. and European allies would extend such guarantees to Ukraine. The country is expected to remain outside of NATO, and negotiators have yet to agree on Russia’s demands for new territory.

This week’s talks mark the first time since February that the three countries have gathered to discuss the war, which continues to claim tens of thousands of lives a month. Most of the casualties are Russian troops, who are ordered into costly frontal assaults on entrenched Ukrainian positions. Ukraine said in October that more than 50,000 Russians were killed and wounded in just four weeks.

NATO’s Article 4 calls on member nations to share intelligence and discuss options should a member state come under attack, while Article 5 stipulates that an attack on one alliance member is an attack on all. Article 5 has only been invoked once, after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington. And NATO allies eventually contributed combat troops to the war in Afghanistan as part of that pact.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is unlikely to agree to the proposal, given that it would further militarize countries near Russia’s border.

Putin has demanded that Ukraine abandon its efforts to join NATO and accept strict limits on the size of its military. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has flatly rejected those demands.

The Trump administration welcomed European allies at the talks, the senior administration officials said. And they praised a recent phone call with Putin, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre — even though some NATO members felt out of the loop.

“We do believe very strongly that at this point, in order to end the war, you really need to have Europe at the table,” the U.S. official said. “We were able to get the call with the Finnish and the Norwegians and the Russians together, which is a good step.”

A Ukrainian official said that the call had been coordinated with Kyiv. And within Europe, leaders are keen to establish their own diplomatic track to end the war.

“We are now in a new situation where European leaders have opened a direct channel with Putin and the previous policy of no-contact is coming to an end,” said Joel Linnainmäki, a former Finnish official. “Europe is no longer relying only on [Steve] Witkoff, [Jared] Kushner and [President Donald] Trump for contact with Putin. More calls could happen later.”

The administration official on Monday said the U.S. is “cautiously optimistic,” about the progress of the talks and suggested that future meetings with Putin and Zelenskyy could come later.