NATO chief warns of 'huge risk' in Ukraine talks without Putin

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte expressed concern about the idea of conducting peace negotiations in the nearly three-year-long Russia-Ukraine war without Russian President Vladimir Putin "at the table," calling the move "risky."

“It is crucial that whenever there is a deal that it is a good deal, with all the elements in there,” Rutte said during a discussion Wednesday at Carnegie Europe think tank in Brussels.

“I think these were very good considerations, but again, for me to start to discuss this, we start a sort of debate amongst ourselves, within the alliance, with our European partners, without having Putin at the table, and that is risky,” he added.

Rutte noted that Ukraine should initiate talks with the Kremlin but must do so in a position of “strength.”

The NATO leader's comments echoed his remarks from earlier this month, when he encouraged members of the alliance to send more arms to soldiers in Ukraine who may be wavering on the battlefield.

“Make sure that Ukraine has what it needs to get to a position of strength when those peace talks start, when the Ukrainian government has decided they are ready to do so,” Rutte said ahead of a foreign ministers conference.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has welcomed NATO’s support amid the war, which has caused many fatalities.

“If we want to stop the hot phase of the war, we need to take under the NATO umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control,” he told Sky News.

Rutte also signaled optimism that peaceful discussions regarding Russian-occupied territories could be settled in the future.

“Ukraine is ready for this negotiation with members of [the] alliance,” Serhii Kuzan, co-founder and chair of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center who has served as an adviser to the government in Kyiv, told The Hill in previous comments.

“Our main task is to become stronger together and not to let Russia become stronger," he added.

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