U.S. negotiators have raised the idea of Ukraine withdrawing its remaining forces from the eastern Donbas region in exchange for NATO membership, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, the BBC reported. "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 in remarks released by his office on Saturday, after they were made on Friday. Kyiv has long sought membership of the alliance, a step previously opposed by the United States and others, while Russia has said another NATO member on its border is unacceptable. Russia already controls most of the industrial Donbas, and Zelensky has consistently said Ukraine is unwilling to give up sovereign territory.
The comments followed meetings between U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, and then with Zelensky in Dublin on Thursday. Zelensky said that if he received a proposal with security guarantees, no constraints on Ukraine's military, and funds to rebuild the country, he would put it to a referendum. The U.S. idea, he said, 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." Comments by Putin and Kremlin officials suggest Russia's demands for territory and neutrality still far exceed what Ukraine will consider. Moscow has previously sought limits on the size of Ukraine's armed forces, territorial concessions, and guaranteed neutrality, terms Kyiv has rejected as leaving it exposed to a future invasion.
Russia has also revived 2021 demands that NATO halt expansion in its vicinity and roll back military infrastructure from Central and Eastern European members that joined after the Soviet Union's collapse. The United States and other Western countries dismissed those demands then; Moscow invaded Ukraine a few months later, in February 2022. Russia now occupies roughly a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including most of Donetsk and Luhansk. Ceding the portions Ukraine still holds in Donbas would be symbolically significant for Kyiv. Russia has said it will not agree to stop fighting until a final peace deal covers territory and security arrangements. Questions of European security were also on the agenda of talks in Abu Dhabi this week.
The latest round comes after a strained stretch between Kyiv and Washington over Ukrainian strikes on oil facilities inside Russia, which President Donald Trump had asked Ukraine to pause. Zelensky later accused U.S. officials of limiting Ukraine's Starlink service, and Trump said it was "time for Ukraine to get a new president." Elections are suspended under martial law. The verified news is that a U.S. trial balloon has been described by Zelensky, not that a deal, a referendum, or a NATO invitation is in hand.