The White House responded to reports of an ultimatum to Ukraine

The White House has denied a Financial Times (FT) report claiming that the United States allegedly presented Ukraine with an ultimatum demanding territorial concessions.

Deputy White House press secretary Anna Kelly said this in a comment to the FT article.

“This is absolutely untrue. The only role the United States has in this peace process is to bring both sides closer together to reach an agreement. It’s unfortunate that the Financial Times allows malicious actors to lie anonymously,” the White House representative said.

At the same time, the authors of the piece cite an anonymous source who claims that the United States is allegedly “not trying to force Ukraine into territorial concessions,” and that any security guarantees Washington might provide to Kyiv would depend on the positions of both Ukraine and Russia.

Earlier, the FT, citing sources, reported that the U.S. was ready to provide Ukraine with security guarantees only if Kyiv agreed to give up its claims to certain territories. It also said Washington was prepared to increase arms supplies to Kyiv if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky agreed to a deal.