Volodymyr Zelensky has said that US negotiators have suggested Ukraine pull its remaining troops out of the eastern Donbas region in return for Nato membership. The Ukrainian president made the remarks on Saturday, after US envoys had visited Moscow and Dublin, where an EU summit was being held, as part of continuing efforts to end the war with Russia.
Zelensky said the idea was raised by the Americans in a direct question. He told reporters it was the first time the matter had come up in this form.
US question on Nato and the Donbas
According to Zelensky, the Americans asked: “What if Ukraine joins Nato? Would Ukraine withdraw from Donbas?” He said that if he received a proposal containing security guarantees, no limits on Ukraine’s military and funds to rebuild the country, he would put it to a referendum.
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US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff travelled to the Irish capital on Thursday to meet Zelensky, a day after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Zelensky said the US proposal led him to 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.”
Kyiv’s Nato goal and Moscow’s opposing terms
Kyiv has long sought Nato membership as a condition of any peace deal, seeing it as a way to deter future threats. Russia has said that another Nato member on its border is unacceptable, and Zelensky has consistently said Ukraine will not give up sovereign territory despite Moscow’s demands for the Donbas.
Moscow has previously proposed limits on the size of Ukraine’s military, territorial concessions and guaranteed neutrality for Kyiv. Ukraine has rejected these, arguing that such constraints would hamper its ability to withstand any future invasion. Comments by Putin and Kremlin officials suggest Russia’s position has not shifted.
Russian-held land and the symbolic cost of a deal
Russia currently occupies roughly a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including most of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that make up the Donbas. Ukraine still controls small portions of the area, and giving them up would be a minor concession in practical terms.
Symbolically, however, it would be significant for Kyiv, as it would amount to accepting the Donbas as Russian. 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.
