Rutte: Before reaching an agreement with Putin, make sure it is in his interest to abide by it

(Patria) - NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte believes that the US peace proposal helped bring Kyiv and Washington closer on the path to ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, the largest and deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II.

In an interview today with RFE/RL from the military alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Rutte assessed that the talks on the proposal - which surprised Kyiv and its European allies - over the weekend in Geneva between US and Ukrainian negotiators were "very successful."

- Well, obviously some elements need to be carefully considered - Rutte said of the 28-point plan, adding that "it is clear that as a basis, it served its purpose yesterday for the two sides to actually start a dialogue."

The plan, which leaked to the media, caused alarm in several European capitals, as well as in Kyiv, late last week, with some calling it a Kremlin "wish list."

The plan's terms require major concessions from Kyiv and appear to reflect many Kremlin demands - including the surrender of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk - known as Donbas - and Crimea, along with setting limits on the size of the Ukrainian army.

The proposal would also allow Moscow to return to the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations, as well as a gradual easing of Western sanctions on the Kremlin.

When the proposal first leaked, European diplomats rushed to draft a counter-proposal that would be easier for Kyiv.

The 58-year-old former Dutch Prime Minister said that "elements that concern the EU or NATO more will be considered separately."

US President Donald Trump initially gave Ukraine a deadline of November 27 to agree to the proposal, although he later softened it.

There have been no public statements on how the revised plan would address issues such as how Ukraine's security would be protected from future Russian threats or how the country's post-war reconstruction would be financed.

Rutte confirmed that he was in contact with both Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over the weekend, but in the interview he did not want to discuss the proposal point by point.

However, he emphasized that the "end state" of the talks is "a sovereign Ukraine moving forward, a strong nation, and that Russia will never again try to attack it."

- I know one thing about Russians in general, and Putin in particular. Whenever you reach an agreement, you must make sure it is in his interest to stick to it. That is why it is so important, whenever a peace agreement on Ukraine is reached, that he will never try again.

And he will never try again when he knows that the consequences for him will be devastating if he tries to attack Ukraine again after a long-term ceasefire or, preferably, a peace agreement - Rutte points out.

He commented on two aspects of the plan that touch on the Western military alliance - future dialogue with Russia and Ukraine's potential NATO membership.

The NATO chief, who took up the post in October last year, said that future talks will not take place within the NATO-Russia Council, which last met just before Russia's invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, nor through the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act, which codified relations between the 32-member military alliance and Moscow.

- Those things are dead, those two institutions - the NATO-Russia Council and the NATO-Russia Founding Act are dead since Putin invaded Ukraine - Rutte says.

He also emphasizes that the Kremlin's invasion of its neighbor is "contrary to all the foundations of our Western values and what the NATO-Russia Founding Act represented and what the NATO-Russia Council tried to achieve."

Rutte did not completely rule out future NATO membership for Ukraine, although the initial US proposal stated that the military alliance should not expand further. Rutte, however, quickly added that Ukraine's NATO membership is currently not possible.

- Every country within NATO, meaning in the Euro-Atlantic area that wants to become a NATO member, and that is the Washington Treaty of 1949 - can apply for membership. But to become a member, you need unanimity. And currently, that unanimity is far off.

Currently, we have several allies who explicitly state that we are against Ukraine joining NATO. Of course, we also had formulations from the Washington summit last year, which state that there is an irreversible path to NATO. So, that is one reality - Rutte added.