Zelenskyy says US asked if Ukraine would leave Donbas to join NATO

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said U.S. negotiators had raised a new question: whether Ukraine would leave eastern Donbas in return for NATO membership, according to remarks published Saturday.

"The Americans raised a question," Zelenskyy said, explaining that they asked if Ukraine would withdraw from Donbas upon joining NATO. "This was the first time this had been raised," he said.

The question led Zelenskyy to believe "NATO is back on the agenda." U.S. officials had previously ruled out Ukrainian membership.

Zelenskyy cautioned, "You have also heard Putin's signals, and this is an extremely difficult conversation." He said there was no concrete offer and reiterated that Ukraine would neither pull out its troops nor give up its territory.

It remained unclear whether Washington would confirm raising the question, whether a formal U.S. proposal exists or when talks will resume.

Referendum proposal

Zelenskyy said he would put the question to a referendum if Ukraine received a package with security guarantees, military funding and reconstruction money.

If Western countries confirmed those guarantees, he said, "then I will ask our Ukrainian society what it thinks: do we accept it or not?". "I have no right to make that decision on my own," Zelenskyy said.

He said no arrangement would recognize occupied territories as Russian. "If Putin expects Ukraine's neutrality to be enshrined, that's not going to happen," he said.

Moscow demands that Ukraine leave the parts of Donbas still controlled by Kyiv and opposes its NATO membership, saying another member on Russia's border is unacceptable. Donbas consists of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions; Russia occupies most of that area and about one-fifth of Ukraine's territory overall.

Giving up Ukraine's remaining portions would be a small practical concession but would constitute acceptance of Donbas as Russian, BBC News reported.

Talks and European security

Zelenskyy spoke after visiting Denmark and Ireland to meet European leaders, following two days of U.S.-brokered Ukraine-Russia talks in Abu Dhabi, Agence France-Presse reported. AFP said his remarks to reporters Friday were embargoed until Saturday, while BBC News reported that he spoke Saturday.

Apart from renewed prisoner exchanges, the Abu Dhabi talks yielded little visible progress and no breakthrough, AFP reported.

U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff subsequently held separate meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy said Moscow discussions with U.S. negotiators yielded an exchange agreement involving more than 1,000 people on each side, with his estimate at 1,200 to 1,300.

"On the proposal for an energy ceasefire: the Russians don't want it," Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy said the United States also raised a possible new European security framework. He warned that Moscow might exploit discussions on it to weaken NATO and redraw Europe's borders. "This is dangerous because, in my view, it is precisely things like this that lead to wars or escalations," he said.

He said "real security in Europe means the EU and NATO" and that "there is no other security in Europe."

Washington backed Ukraine's demand for direct European participation in negotiations, Zelenskyy said. The European Union said Friday that diplomats from countries including Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Poland would join future talks.

Moscow has long sought to exclude European states from negotiations because they support Ukraine.

Russian authorities said a Ukrainian drone attack Saturday killed a mother, father and their 24-month-old daughter at their Proletarsky home, in the Belgorod region about 20km from Ukraine's border.

European representatives are due at the next round of talks after all sides agreed to include them in future negotiations.