Ukraine War: Tremendous Progress Made, But Work Remains

Today was a good day. A tremendous amount of progress was made. It’s even more than the last time I spoke to you.

I apologize for the wait. There was more work to be done. We started almost three weeks ago. It was with a foundational document.

We socialized it. Both sides ran by it. Both sides gave input. After ten months, I have a sense of priorities. I also know the red lines and important issues for both sides.

Creating a Foundation for Peace

This allowed us to create a foundational document. It has been an ongoing working document. In fact, there’s been extensive engagement with the Ukrainian side. This has occurred over the last 96 hours or more.

This included our Secretary of the Army. He and others were on the ground in Kyiv. They met with stakeholders across the Ukrainian political spectrum. They spoke with people in the legislative branch, executive branch, military, and others.

This helped to further narrow these points. We arrived today with one goal. It was to take 28 or 26 points and narrow the open items. We’ve achieved that today in a very substantial way.

Remaining Hurdles and the Path Forward

Like any final agreement, the presidents must agree upon it. A couple issues still need work. Despite this, today was worthwhile. It was probably the most productive day. This has been true in the entirety of our engagement.

Work remains. This continues to be a working process. I don’t want to declare victory or finality here. There’s still some work to be done. But we are much further ahead today. It’s more than when we began this morning. It’s definitely more than a week ago.

Details Remain Delicate and Undisclosed

I’m not going to get into the details on the issues. This is a very delicate moment. It’s important that there’s not agreement on those yet. Some of it is semantics or language.

Others require higher level decisions and consultation. Others just need more time to work through. As an aside, there were items that we were discussing. These were part of the original 28.

It’s a living, breathing document. Every day with input, it changes. There were some that involved equities. There was also the role of the EU or NATO. We segregated those out.

We met with national security advisors for European countries. Those are things we’ll have to discuss with them. It involves them. We focused on the ones that were bilateral. There are a couple. None of it is insurmountable.

The items that remain open are not insurmountable. We just need more time than what we have today. I honestly believe we’ll get there.

Compromise and the Ongoing Process

I’m not going to get into the details of topics discussed. This is an ongoing process. You have to write it down to have a proposal. If it’s just verbal, it’s in the air.

You have to put it down on paper. Just because it’s printed on paper doesn’t indicate finality. You get input. Based on that input, you make adjustments.

Then you get more input. Or you make a counter offer. You get more adjustments. That’s an ongoing process. There’s a lot more to happen.

I’m not going to speculate or go into the details. This is about specific items in the latest version of the proposal. By tomorrow or the next day, that may evolve and change further.

But I can tell you I feel very optimistic. We can get something done here. We made a tremendous amount of progress today.

Positive Reports and the Russian Perspective

It was very positive. I’m telling you, today was the most productive day we have had. Today and we’ve talked to him since. I think he’s quite pleased at the reports.

We’ve given him the amount of progress that’s been made. Obviously, the Russians get a vote here, right? We began from the early stage. We understood the Russian position.

We communicated in numerous ways. At the State Department, we received written non-papers. Verbally, things they’ve discussed over time and so forth. So no matter what we came up with today, we have to take what we come up with.

If we can reach an agreement with the Ukrainian side to the Russian side. That’s another part of this equation. They have to agree to this in order for this to work.

The Urgency of Ending the War

The deadline is we want to get this done as soon as possible. Obviously, we’d love it to be Thursday. Ultimately the important point today is that we have made substantial progress.

We’ve really moved forward. So I feel very optimistic. We’re going to get there in a reasonable period of time very soon. Whether it’s Thursday, Friday, or Monday of the following week. We want it to be soon.

People are going to die between today and the time we deal with this. More destruction is going to happen. Our goal is to end this war as soon as possible. But we need a little more time.

Ongoing Discussions and Hope for Resolution

I’m not going to discuss any of the particulars of it. Frankly, as I said, this is an ongoing process. I think there’s work to be done.

I know that’s deeply unsatisfying to you. You have to cover these sorts of things. But I wanted to make you aware that we’ve made progress. I simply don’t want to do anything that sets us back in that regard.

I can tell you we’ve made substantial progress. Today was the best day we have had. It’s true in our entire 10 months of working on these issues.

European Allies and Shared Positivity

We met with the national security advisors of a variety of countries. They were here. We walked them through the progress. We didn’t go into tremendous detail again.

We assured them that items that involved Europe and NATO directly. Those items are items that we agreed to put as part of a separate track. It involves input from them.

But I think what they heard, and I hope they’ll confirm. I believe they will. It’s an incredible amount of positivity. It’s from both the Ukrainian and American side.