With peace in Ukraine still elusive, progress from U.S. initiatives have officials discussing a postwar security landscape.

U.S. administration officials signaled Monday a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine may be closer than ever.

Ukraine has relinquished its ambition of joining the NATO military alliance in exchange for Western security guarantees as a compromise to end the war with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said ahead of talks with U.S. envoys in Berlin.

The Kremlin has described Ukraine’s push to join NATO as one of the “root causes” of the conflict. Russia sees an expanding NATO as a major security threat. But NATO’s expansion into the Baltics and other post-Soviet states is driven by a fear that Moscow would one day invade and try to fold them back under its control—as seen in Ukraine.

NATO countries, including Canada, are falling behind Russia and China in the development of Arctic-capable drones — uncrewed aerial and land vehicles that are ideal for surveillance.