US Floated Ukraine Ceding Donbas in Exchange for NATO Membership, Zelensky Says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said US negotiators touted an idea under which Ukraine would withdraw its remaining forces from the eastern Donbas region in exchange for NATO membership, as part of ongoing efforts to end the war with Russia. He made the comments to reporters on Saturday.
"The Americans raised a question: 'What if Ukraine joins NATO? Would Ukraine withdraw from Donbas?' This was the first time this had been raised," Zelensky said. The proposal made him believe that "NATO is back on the agenda." US officials had previously said Ukrainian NATO membership was off the table.
Kyiv has long sought membership of the military alliance as a condition of any peace deal to deter future threats, while Russia has said another NATO member on its border was unacceptable. Zelensky has consistently said Ukraine is unwilling to give up sovereign territory, despite Moscow's demands for it to cede the Donbas.
Zelensky went on to say that if he received a proposal containing security guarantees, no constraints on Ukraine's military and funds to rebuild the country, he would put it to a referendum. If Western nations confirmed the terms, he would ask Ukrainians whether they accepted them. "I have no right to make that decision on my own," he said.
US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff travelled to the Irish capital on Thursday to meet Zelensky, after a round of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow the day before. Kushner wrote in a post on X that, moving forward, Europe would have a "voice" in peace negotiations, allowing the broader postwar European security arrangements to be addressed alongside the territorial issues between Ukraine and Russia.
Comments by both Putin and Kremlin officials suggest, however, that Russia's position on the war has not shifted, and that Moscow's demands for territory and neutrality continue to far exceed what Ukraine is prepared to consider. Putin has signalled that Russia will not back down on territorial demands to control parts of Ukraine and has rejected the idea of foreign peacekeeping troops being deployed in the country.
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova dampened hopes of such an agreement on Friday, saying that as far as her department was aware, "the issue was not discussed during the talks with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Moscow." Presidential aide Yuri Ushakov added: "For our part, the position of the Europeans has been comprehensively outlined," and said the Europeans must decide whether they want peace or the continuation of the war.
Russia currently occupies roughly a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including most of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that compose the Donbas. Ceding the small portions of land Ukraine still controls there would be a small concession in practical terms, but would be symbolically significant for Kyiv because it would constitute an acceptance of the Donbas being Russian. Zelensky cautioned: "You have also heard Putin's signals, and this is an extremely difficult conversation."
