Polish prime minister hopes for peace in Ukraine within weeks

By Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk and Pawel Florkiewicz

WARSAW, Dec 30 (Reuters) – Peace could be achieved in Ukraine within weeks thanks to U.S. security guarantees although success is still “far from 100% certain”, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Tuesday.

Tusk also hinted at the possibility of U.S. troops being sent to the line of contact between Ukraine and Russia, but he gave no details of such a proposal and the White House did not immediately comment on his remarks.

Tusk is a fierce critic of Russia over its war in Ukraine, but his comments reflected a positive response by European leaders to talks on Sunday between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at which Zelenskiy said agreement was reached on security guarantees for Kyiv.

“Peace is on the horizon, there is no doubt that things have happened that give grounds for hope that this war can end, and quite quickly, but it is still a hope, far from 100% certain,” Tusk told a Polish government meeting after talks with allies.

“When I say peace is on the horizon, I’m talking about the coming weeks, not the coming months or years. By January, we’ll all have to come together… to make decisions about the future of Ukraine, the future of this part of the world.”

US SECURITY GUARANTEES

Trump said on Sunday that he and Zelenskiy were “maybe very close” to an agreement to end the war although “thorny” territorial issues remained. He was more cautious than Zelenskiy on security guarantees, but said they were 95% of the way to such an agreement and that he expected European countries to “take over a big part” of that effort with U.S. backing.

“The key result of recent days is the American declaration… (of) willingness to participate in security guarantees for Ukraine after a peace agreement, including the presence of American troops, for example, on the border or on the line of contact between Ukraine and Russia,” Tusk said.

“We’ll see how consistent our partners across the Atlantic will be, but this gives hope for a successful outcome.”

Russia has said any foreign troop deployment in Ukraine is unacceptable. It also said on Tuesday that its negotiating position will toughen after accusing Kyiv of attacking a Russian presidential residence, an allegation that Kyiv said was baseless and intended to prolong the conflict.

Tusk underlined the need for movement on territorial issues, with Russia demanding Ukrainian forces pull out of the last part of the Donbas area in eastern Ukraine that they still hold nearly four years after Russia’s invasion. Kyiv wants fighting halted along current front lines.

“Understandably, from his (Zelenskiy’s) perspective, a referendum would be necessary. The Ukrainian people would have to consent to territorial decisions,” Tusk said.

After Tusk spoke, Zelenskiy said Ukraine and the so-called “Coalition of the Willing” group of nations backing Kyiv planned to hold their next meetings early in January.

Zelenskiy said the countries’ national security advisers would meet in Ukraine on January 3, and then leaders in France on January 6.

(Reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk, Pawel Florkiewicz, Bart Meijer and Miranda Murray, Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu and Andrea Shalal in Washington, Writing by Alan Charlish, Editing by Timothy Heritage)