Zelensky Says U.S. Asks if Ukraine Would Leave Donbas for NATO

The remarks by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, published Saturday after an embargo, came a day after U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met him in Dublin, following talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

“I have said repeatedly: Ukraine will not retreat and will not surrender its territory to terrorists,” Zelensky said, according to an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent. “The Americans asked: ‘If Ukraine joins NATO, will Ukraine withdraw from Donbas?’ This was the first time.”

Americans Raise NATO Membership Question

The approach marks a shift from earlier U.S. messaging that Ukrainian membership in the alliance was off the table, the BBC reported.

Zelensky said the question had made him believe “NATO is back on the agenda.” He also cautioned that signals from Putin made it “an extremely difficult conversation.”

The comments follow a week of diplomacy that included talks in Abu Dhabi and meetings with European partners on the margins of a Dublin summit, after which Kushner described Ukraine’s postwar potential as “incredible.”

No Concrete Proposal Yet

Zelensky said Ukraine is discussing a comprehensive security package with its partners, including guarantees from NATO and the European Union, a well-equipped army, and a recovery plan with identified funding.

“But we need specifics, and we don’t have them yet. All of this is still under discussion,” he said.

The White House and the U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Politico reported.

Moscow has separately circulated maximalist demands in the same talks, including a NATO pullback to 1997 lines, The New York Times reported.

Public Would Decide Any Package

If Washington and other NATO partners confirmed such a proposal, Zelensky said he would take it to the Ukrainian public and could not decide alone.

“If such a proposal is made, I, as president, will engage in an open dialogue with the public,” he said, adding that any arrangement would come “without any recognition of the territories occupied by Russia.”

Washington has for months tied security guarantees to a peace deal that could involve a Ukrainian withdrawal from Donbas, a position Zelensky has previously described.

Alternative Guarantees Exclude American Troops

Zelensky said Kyiv had earlier sought security guarantees modeled on NATO’s Article 5 collective defense pledge. The U.S. side is now discussing arrangements similar to Articles 4 and 5, he said.

He asked whether American soldiers would then be stationed in Ukraine. “Their answer to that is: ‘No,’” he said.

According to Zelensky, Washington describes those pledges as bilateral and compares them to U.S. security arrangements with Israel and some Middle Eastern countries.