Fred Fleitz, National Security Council chief of staff in President Donald Trump's first term, on Newsmax Monday echoed U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff's comments that NATO-like security guarantees for Ukraine are a game changer in helping to end the more than 3-year-old war between Russia and Ukraine.
Witkoff said Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed at his summit with President Donald Trump on Friday in Alaska to allow the U.S. and European allies to offer Ukraine a security guarantee resembling NATO's collective defense mandate as part of a deal to end the war.
"It is fascinating what we're hearing now that there may be a package in which Trump said today concerning security guarantees, 'We will give them very good protection, very good security,'" Fleitz told "American Agenda."
"This really is a game changer, as Steve Witkoff put it. It does sound like an Article 5 — and Article 5 is the NATO charter — an Article 5-like defense arrangement that if Ukraine is attacked, an alliance of nations will defend them and that there may be peacekeepers on the ground, maybe European troops — American troops, I don't know about that — to stop Russia from invading."
He added, "It really is a game changer. But we have to hear the details."
Fleitz said the gathering of Western leaders at the White House on Monday — including Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — is another game changer by sending Putin a strong message of unity among the U.S. and its allies.
"It's a powerful message that Western nations are working with Trump to bring peace to Ukraine, and I hope it means they support what he's doing, they will support what he's proposing today," Fleitz said. "And if that's the case, it's going to give Trump an enormous amount of leverage in dealing with Putin."
"He's going to call Putin after these meetings to arrange a trilateral meeting [with Zelenskyy]. And if all these nations are united behind a common message, that's the best outcome today. It's going to put a lot of pressure on Putin to deal and to agree to a trilateral meeting."
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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