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Zelensky Says U.S. Negotiators Floated Ceding the Donbas in Exchange for NATO Membership — and That He Ruled It Out
By Maya Wilson
Photo: George Chernilevsky / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
President Volodymyr Zelensky said United States negotiators had suggested Ukraine cede the Donbas in exchange for NATO membership and United States security guarantees, and that he rejected the idea.
Zelensky described the proposal as one raised in discussions with the United States, not as an agreed plan. He said he had ruled it out, adding that ceding Ukrainian territory would violate Ukraine’s constitution and that Ukraine could not give up the Donbas.
The account was carried in a BBC report and was also reported overnight by France 24 and CNA, which carried the same account from Zelensky.
U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff travelled to Dublin on Thursday to meet Zelensky, after talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Their meeting in Dublin placed the reported suggestion in the context of continuing diplomatic efforts involving Washington, Kyiv and Moscow.
The proposal, as described by Zelensky, would link a territorial concession to membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Zelensky said the exchange had been floated alongside an offer of United States security guarantees.
He rejected that framing. In his account, the Donbas could not be traded for membership, even with guarantees attached, because the constitution did not permit Ukraine to surrender territory and because the region itself could not be given up.
The distinction matters because the proposal has not been presented as a settled agreement. It was, according to Zelensky, a suggestion raised in discussion. No formal United States or Russian response to the reported proposal appears in the BBC article, and no Russian official comment is included in that report.
That absence is stated plainly in the available reporting. The BBC article does not record a formal reply from Washington to the account, nor does it carry a response from Moscow or a comment from a Russian official.
The episode nevertheless places the question of territory at the centre of the diplomatic discussion around Ukraine. Any proposal involving the Donbas would touch on questions of sovereignty, constitutional limits and the terms on which Kyiv could accept a settlement.
Zelensky’s account presents the idea as one he was unwilling to accept. His public rejection of it underlines Kyiv’s position that territory cannot be exchanged for security guarantees or membership, even in a negotiation in which such guarantees are part of the discussion.
The Dublin meeting followed the envoys’ talks in Moscow, where Kushner and Witkoff had met Putin before travelling to meet Zelensky. The sequence of meetings shows the United States engaging both sides, with the reported suggestion emerging in the account given by the Ukrainian president after his meeting with the American envoys.
For now, the proposal remains described only in Zelensky’s account. It is not presented in the BBC report as an agreed plan, and the available reporting does not show a formal response from either the United States or Russia.
Maya Wilson
World Desk Lead, The Library Media
Update: Al Jazeera, in a report filed with Reuters and The Associated Press, also carried President Zelenskyy’s account on Saturday, reporting that U.S. negotiators floated ceding parts of eastern Donbas — including areas Russia does not control — in exchange for NATO membership, and that Zelenskyy refused. Zelenskyy said this was the first time the question of linking NATO membership to territorial concessions had been raised. He added a condition: if the American side, together with other NATO partners, confirmed a comprehensive package including security guarantees, military and reconstruction funds and a recovery plan, he would put the question of ceding parts of Donbas to a national referendum. He also rejected any commitment to neutrality, saying that would require changing Ukraine’s constitution, and stressed that no arrangement would involve recognising occupied territories as Russian. No U.S. official confirmation of the account has been reported.
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