BERLIN, December 12. /TASS/. The current talks on settling the conflict in Ukraine leave "a lot of open questions," German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said, adding that he is trying to involve the United States and Ukraine in the discussions.

"The talks are proceeding very intensively these days," he said as quoted by the DPA agency. "We are trying to involve the US government, as well as Ukraine’s government, in the talks we are holding among us."

According to Merz, a major element of security guarantees that have been the subject of discussions for several weeks is "strengthening the Ukrainian army."

"We are ready to contribute to this. The Americans’ contribution will also be needed," he stated, adding that it is yet to be decided how this will be integrated into the general security concept.

"So, there are a lot of open questions and all of them are the subject of the ongoing talks," the German chancellor said. "We know that we will not be able to defend Ukraine in the long-term perspective without security guarantees."

However, he did not elaborate on the possibility of a meeting on Ukraine in Berlin early next week.

On December 11, Merz said that he hoped that talks on the Ukrainian settlement with US officials would continue this weekend. The Bild newspaper reported on the following day that Zelensky would arrive in Berlin on December 15 to meet with Merz. Apart from that, according to Bild, talks in the E3 format, i.e. involving Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, on this matter are also planned.

Negotiations on Ukraine intensified after Washington proposed its 28-point peace plan in November. Kiev and its partners in Europe expressed dissatisfaction with the document and attempted to substantially revise it. Later, Trump stated that the initial plan had been refined taking into account the positions of Moscow and Kiev, with only a few contentious issues remaining. American representatives held talks with a Ukrainian delegation in Florida and with Russia in Moscow.

On December 8, Vladimir Zelensky promised to hand over to the US a shortened version of the peace plan, reduced to 20 points, developed during his meeting with European leaders. On December 10, they presented Trump with a proposal regarding Ukraine's territorial concessions as part of a plan to settle the conflict.