Zelenskyy Says US Raised Ukraine NATO Membership in Exchange for Donbas Withdrawal

United States negotiators have raised the idea of Ukraine NATO membership in exchange for Kyiv withdrawing from the eastern Donbas region, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday, calling it the first time the question had been put to Ukraine in those terms.

The proposal came after the latest round of US-mediated peace talks with Russia in Abu Dhabi. Zelenskyy said Kyiv was not willing to retreat from its territory, but added that he would put the question to a referendum if Ukraine received a comprehensive security package.

FAKTA

• What was proposed: US negotiators asked whether Ukraine would withdraw from Donbas if it joined NATO, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
• Kyiv’s position: Ukraine will not give up territory, but Zelenskyy said he would put the question to a referendum if a comprehensive security package were confirmed.
• The package: Security guarantees, a strong and well-funded Ukrainian army, and funds to rebuild the country.
• Where it came from: The question followed two days of US-mediated peace talks with Russia in Abu Dhabi this week.
• Europe’s role: Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Poland, together with the EU institutions, will represent Europe in the talks.
• Russia’s position: Moscow has demanded Ukraine withdraw from the parts of Donbas it still holds and opposes Ukrainian membership of NATO.

What Zelenskyy said

“The Americans raised a question: ‘What if Ukraine joins NATO? Would Ukraine withdraw from Donbas?’ This was the first time this had been raised,” Zelenskyy told reporters in remarks released by his office on Saturday.

“That is why I believe NATO is back on the agenda. But you have also heard [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s signals, and this is an extremely difficult conversation.”

Zelenskyy said that if Ukraine received a comprehensive security package, including security guarantees, a strong and well-funded Ukrainian army and funds to rebuild, he would put the question to a referendum. He added that he could not make such a decision alone.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. NATO membership for Ukraine is back on the agenda in the US-mediated peace talks, he said.

Ukraine NATO membership back on the agenda

Ukraine has long sought NATO membership, and Russia has cast that ambition as a major threat to Moscow’s security and as a reason for launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022. The Kremlin has demanded that Kyiv renounce the bid for alliance membership as part of any prospective peace settlement.

The exact shape of the security on offer remains unclear. In earlier remarks during the Abu Dhabi talks, Zelenskyy said he had asked US officials whether they meant NATO membership itself or a mechanism similar to it. The White House has previously denied that Washington conditioned a security guarantee on territorial concessions.

Europe joins the talks

After two days of talks with Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Abu Dhabi this week, US envoys went in person to brief President Putin in the Kremlin and President Zelenskyy, who was meeting European leaders in Dublin, Ireland.

More talks are planned as negotiators seek a breakthrough, according to US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Kushner said Russia has agreed to include European countries in upcoming talks, which will allow negotiators to address broader post-war European security arrangements alongside the territorial issues between Ukraine and Russia.

Five countries — Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Poland — together with the EU institutions will represent Europe in possible peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, European Council President António Costa said on Friday evening.

“Europe must speak with one clear voice and united voice in all discussion that shape the future of Ukraine and the security of our continent,” Costa told a press conference at the end of the meeting in Dublin.

The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said the bloc must insist on a ceasefire before taking the negotiations further. “If we start to talk about what Russia is asking regarding the security architecture, we actually walk into the traps that Russia is setting us,” she said in Dublin on the sidelines of an EU summit.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Russia wanted to talk about questions of European security architecture. “We don’t need to talk about that. There is one,” he said, referring to the NATO military alliance.

Fighting continues on the ground

The developments came after Ukraine fired almost 1,200 drones at Russia in one of its biggest aerial attacks since the full-scale invasion nearly five years ago. Russia’s defence ministry said its forces downed 1,198 Ukrainian long-range drones between late Thursday and early Friday.

Strikes on three Russian regions killed seven people, including a 12-year-old, and wounded 17, local officials said. Ukraine’s General Staff said it hit an oil refinery in the Russian city of Volgograd, starting a fire.

Russia launched 117 drones against Ukraine, killing at least two people, including a 17-year-old, authorities said. A single Russian attack on Friday on southern Zaporizhzhia hit two five-storey apartment blocks and wounded 30 people, including six children, officials said.

Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure caused widespread power outages across about half of the country’s regions on Friday, First Deputy Minister of Energy Artem Nekrasov said. The war has killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers and thousands of civilians, analysts and humanitarian organisations say.

For now, the hardest questions in the talks — territory and security — remain unresolved, and negotiators have agreed only to keep talking. Read more world news on Watan News.