The American weekly Newsweek revealed in its Thursday issue that with the faltering counterattack launched by Ukraine continuing, American and Ukrainian officials are quietly negotiating a formal alliance capable of reshaping the security landscape in Europe.

Negotiations were overshadowed by Kiev's push this summer to regain Russian-controlled territory in southern Ukraine, but the discussions caught new attention recently when Ukrainian President Volodymyr said he expected Ukraine and the United States to agree to a security agreement similar to the alliance between the United States and Israel.

It is noteworthy that there is no defense treaty between the two countries, but the United States provides Israel with military aid worth four billion annually, and the United States considers Israel its most important ally in the region.

According to NEWSWEEK, Zelensky said in an interview Sunday with Ukrainian media that "we are likely to get this exact model, the Israeli model that includes weapons, technology, training and financing."

Such an arrangement would provide Ukraine with less security compared to its membership in NATO, which US President Joe Biden said would not happen before the end of the war. But such training would make Ukraine a crucial long-term partner for the United States in Eastern Europe, while sending Russia the message that Western support for Kiev will not diminish.

Experts believe that the current arrangements between the United States and Ukraine are a reliable temporary arrangement until the issue of Ukraine's membership in NATO is clarified.

A bilateral security alliance similar to the agreement between America and Israel is supposed to create a permanent stream of military aid to Ukraine, along with training, intelligence cooperation, and other resources. Since the beginning of the Russo-Ukraine war, the US Congress has approved military aid to Ukraine on an ad hoc basis, which has created uncertainty for military planners in Kiev, military experts say.

A long-term security guarantee could also help insulate Ukraine from changes in power in the White House and Congress caused by the elections. A growing number of Republicans in Congress and some of the party's 2024 presidential candidates oppose more military aid to Ukraine.

But it is not clear from Zelensky's comments whether the negotiators are using Israel as a model for Ukraine, or whether this is simply the direction he would like the talks to go. Zelensky is known to urge Western allies to try to get them to do more to support Ukraine.

It is noteworthy that the Ukrainian president's comments last Sunday were not the first time that Zelensky raised Israel as a possible model for moving forward in the relationship between the United States and Ukraine.

The administration of US President Biden has not publicly disclosed much about the security negotiations with Ukraine since the announcement in early August of the start of the talks.