Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said US negotiators have raised the idea of Ukraine withdrawing its remaining forces from the eastern Donbas region, an industrial heartland, in exchange for NATO membership, a trade-off he said had not been put to Kyiv before.
The comments were made on Friday and released by Zelensky’s office on Saturday. They came after US President Donald Trump’s envoys met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and then Zelensky in Dublin as Washington pushes for an end to the war.
“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. He has consistently said Ukraine will not surrender sovereign territory, and Kyiv has long sought membership in the military alliance. The United States and other allies previously opposed that goal, while Russia has called another NATO member on its border unacceptable.
Zelensky said that if he received a proposal containing security guarantees, no limits on Ukraine’s military and money to rebuild the country, he would put it to a referendum. His condition places any territorial decision in the hands of voters, rather than accepting a withdrawal outright.
US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff traveled to the Irish capital, Dublin, on Thursday to meet Zelensky. Their stop followed a round of talks with Putin in Moscow. The meetings are part of US efforts to broker a settlement between Russia and Ukraine, after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Comments from Putin and Kremlin officials indicate that Russia’s position has not shifted. Moscow’s demands for territory and Ukrainian neutrality continue to exceed what Ukraine is prepared to consider. Russia has previously proposed limits on the size of Ukraine’s military, territorial concessions and guaranteed neutrality as conditions for peace. Ukraine rejected those terms, arguing that such constraints would weaken its ability to repel a future invasion.
Russia has now raised the stakes further by reviving 2021 demands for NATO to halt any expansion near Russia and to roll back military infrastructure from central and eastern European countries that joined the alliance after the Soviet Union dissolved. The United States and other Western nations dismissed those demands at the time, and Moscow invaded Ukraine a few months later. European security questions were on the agenda at the latest round of talks among Ukraine, Russia and the United States in Abu Dhabi this week. Russia has insisted it will not agree to stop fighting until a final peace deal is in place, including territorial settlements and security arrangements.
Zelensky said the US proposal made him believe that “NATO is back on the agenda.” But he cautioned: “You have also heard Putin’s signals, and this is an extremely difficult conversation.”
Russia currently occupies roughly one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, including most of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that make up the Donbas. Giving up the small portions of land Ukraine still controls there would carry symbolic weight for Kyiv. Zelensky has previously spoken of retaking Russian-controlled territory in four of Ukraine’s regions, as well as the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
The latest diplomacy follows a period of strained relations between Kyiv and Washington over Ukrainian strikes on oil facilities deep inside Russia. Trump had asked Ukraine to pause the strikes to facilitate the supply of Russian diesel and ease global fuel prices. Zelensky then accused US officials of limiting Ukraine’s Starlink internet service, which the military uses to coordinate defensive operations. Trump said it was “time for Ukraine to get a new president” and called for fresh elections.
Elections are suspended while Ukraine remains under martial law. Zelensky has previously said he was willing to hold them within months of a peace deal being reached and would give up the presidency in exchange for NATO membership.