Britain, France and Germany have been working to refine US proposals for an end to the fighting with Russia, which in a draft disclosed last month called for Kyiv to cede more territory, abandon its NATO ambitions and accept limits on its armed forces.

This is a major shift for Ukraine, which has fought to join NATO as a safeguard against Russia. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy offered to drop Ukraine's aspirations to join the NATO military alliance as he held hours of talks with U.S. envoys in Berlin on Sunday to end the war with Russia, with negotiations ‌set to continue on Monday. No more details were immediately available of the meetings between…

The talks come as the US pushes Ukraine to accept its plan for implementing a ceasefire.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US envoys completed more than five hours of negotiations in Berlin on December 14 with no indication of potential results revealed, only that talks would continue the following day.

The United States is considering offering Ukraine security guarantees akin to those under NATO’s Article 5, which would require Congressional approval and be legally binding, Axios reported, citing a senior US official. Negotiations on these guarantees, alongside post-war peace and reconstruction measures, have reportedly made significant progress.

US and Ukrainian negotiators will again meet for high-stakes peace talks -- this time in Berlin -- as disagreements persist over territorial control and security guarantees and as Russia intensifies attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure sites.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits the frontline city of Kupiansk days before crucial Berlin talks with Trump envoys on security guarantees.

Russia has rejected a proposal to hold a referendum to let Ukrainians decide on giving up territory in the eastern Donbas region, much of which Moscow claims to control, highlighting a key sticking point as negotiators head to Berlin for high stakes talks aimed at ending Russia's war on Ukraine.