OMM Newsroom
US negotiators have raised the possibility of Ukraine withdrawing its remaining forces from the eastern Donbas region in exchange for Nato membership, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday, according to the BBC.
His comments came as efforts to end the war continued, following US envoys’ talks in Moscow and meetings in Dublin. Kyiv has long sought Nato membership as part of a peace deal to deter future threats, while Russia says it would not accept another Nato member on its border.
Ukraine has repeatedly rejected giving up sovereign territory, despite Moscow’s demands that it cede the Donbas. “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 told reporters.
He said he would put a proposal to a referendum if it included security guarantees, no restrictions on Ukraine’s military and funds to rebuild the country.
US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff travelled to Dublin on Thursday to meet Zelensky, a day after holding talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
Comments by Putin and Kremlin officials indicate that Russia’s position has not shifted, the BBC reported. Moscow continues to demand territory and Ukrainian neutrality, conditions Kyiv has rejected, arguing that military restrictions would undermine its ability to defend against a future invasion.
Russia has previously proposed limits on the size of Ukraine’s military, territorial concessions and guaranteed neutrality as terms of a peace deal.
There have also been recent signs of possible common ground. Last month, US First Lady Melania Trump brokered a temporary ceasefire in the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky to allow evacuations and aid deliveries.
US officials had previously said Ukrainian Nato membership was off the table. Zelensky said on Saturday that the latest proposal made him believe “Nato is back on the agenda”, but cautioned: “You have also heard Putin’s signals, and this is an extremely difficult conversation.”
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 smaller parts of those regions; giving them up would be a limited concession in practical terms but symbolically significant for Kyiv, as it would amount to accepting the Donbas as Russian.
Zelensky has previously spoken of retaking Russian-controlled territory in four Ukrainian regions, as well as the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
