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NATO-Style Article 5 Security Guarantees for Ukraine Emerge From Alaska Summit, Witkoff Says
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![Photo of Maryna Kulakova]( "Photo of Maryna Kulakova")
Special envoy Steve Witkoff says the White House secured critical gains from the August 15 summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska, with the central achievement being a framework of security guarantees for Ukraine modeled on NATO’s Article 5 collective defense pledge.
Speaking to CNN on August 17, Witkoff described these “Article 5-like protections” as the real prize. “They’re game-changing,” he said.
“We didn’t think that we were anywhere close to agreeing to Article Five protection from the United States in legislative enshrinement within the Russian Federation, not to go after any other territory when the peace deal is codified,” Witkoff explained on CNN’s State of the Union.
He went on to say, “We got to an agreement that the United States and other European nations could effectively offer Article 5-like language to cover a security guarantee.”
“We’re on the path for the first time,” Witkoff told CNN. “We are seeing accommodation more than we’ve seen in the past, certainly more than we saw in the last administration. And that’s encouraging. Now we have to build on that.”
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Article 5 is the cornerstone of NATO’s founding treaty, the Washington Treaty of 1949. It says that an armed attack against one NATO member is considered an attack against all. In practice, that means if any member is attacked, the other allies are obliged to respond—potentially with military force—to defend them.
Previously, it was reported that at the Alaska summit, Russian leader Vladimir Putin pushed for a peace deal that would force Ukraine to cede unoccupied parts of the Donetsk region. This proposal stands in contrast to Trump’s earlier calls for an immediate ceasefire before the meeting, according to The New York Times on August 16.
