Zelensky says US negotiators asked if Ukraine would leave Donbas in exchange for NATO membership

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said US negotiators have floated a trade: Ukraine withdraws from the eastern Donbas territory it still controls, and in return gets NATO membership.

Zelensky spoke to reporters on Friday, Nov. 13. His office released the remarks Saturday, Nov. 14.

"The Americans raised a question: 'What if Ukraine joins NATO? Would Ukraine withdraw from Donbas?' This was the first time this had been raised," he said.

He was equally clear about what it is not. "We need specifics, and we don't have them yet. All of this is still under discussion."

What Zelensky says is on the table

US officials had previously said Ukrainian NATO membership was off the table. Zelensky said the question has changed that. "NATO is back on the agenda," he said, then added: "You have also heard Putin's signals, and this is an extremely difficult conversation."

He described a security package Kyiv is discussing with partners. It includes specific guarantees from NATO and the EU, a strong Ukrainian army with enough troops, weapons and funding for a set period, and a reconstruction plan backed by identified funding sources.

He said he asked for guarantees modeled on NATO's Article 5 "as an absolute minimum." Washington is now saying it could be something similar to Articles 4 and 5, he said. Asked whether American soldiers would be deployed in Ukraine under such guarantees, the US side answered "No," according to Zelensky. He said US officials described the arrangement as bilateral guarantees similar to those Israel has.

If the Americans confirm a package like that, together with other NATO members, Zelensky said he would take it to the Ukrainian public. "I have no right to make that decision on my own," he said. He said any deal would come without recognition of occupied territory as Russian.

Russia's position

Moscow has not signaled it is buying any of this. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that, as far as her department knew, the issue was not discussed in the talks Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held with Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said the Europeans are "striving by every means possible to join the negotiations," but "they must decide whether they want peace or the continuation of the war."

At this week's trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi, Russia laid out conditions that included a guarantee Ukraine would not join NATO, though it left open EU membership. Moscow has long said another NATO member on its border is unacceptable. After meeting Witkoff and Kushner, Putin signaled Russia would not back down on its territorial demands and rejected foreign peacekeeping troops in Ukraine.

Russia occupies roughly a fifth of Ukraine, including most of Donetsk and Luhansk, the two regions that make up Donbas. Ceding the slice Ukraine still holds would be symbolically heavy for Kyiv, because it would accept Donbas as Russian. Zelensky said on Friday he would not amend Ukraine's constitution to make the country neutral.

A week of talks, little movement

The Abu Dhabi round on Nov. 10-11 was the first US-mediated direct session between Russia and Ukraine since February. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called it "very productive." Zelensky called it "constructive and quite substantive."

Outside renewed prisoner exchanges, little concrete progress has been reported. Zelensky said Russia refused an energy ceasefire and that its delegation lacked the mandate to discuss one.

Before the Abu Dhabi round, the Telegraph reported that Ukraine rejected a US proposal to redraw Donbas boundaries along the current front line. That would have let Russia control about 90% of the territory it occupies there. A Ukrainian source told the paper: "Ukraine's delegation never discussed any concessions on any territories which Russia occupies."

Relations between Kyiv and Washington have been strained, including over Ukrainian strikes on oil facilities deep inside Russia. Zelensky also said high-speed Starshield satellite capabilities, which Ukrainian forces need along the front and in occupied areas, still have not been restored.

Europe's seat

Witkoff and Kushner met Zelensky in Dublin on Thursday, Nov. 12. Kushner wrote on X that Europe would have a "voice" in the negotiations, so that postwar European security arrangements can be addressed alongside the territorial issues.

Zelensky said the envoys told him Putin agreed to European participation in the next round. He has asked European allies to decide by the end of November who will represent the continent.

The fighting has not paused for any of this. Russian authorities said a Ukrainian drone strike on Saturday killed a couple and their 24-month-old daughter at their home in Proletarsky, in Russia's Belgorod region. Russia's Defense Ministry said it intercepted 29 Ukrainian drones overnight, including several over the Moscow region. Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 96 drones from Friday evening and that 81 were shot down or electronically suppressed.

It is unclear whether Washington puts the NATO-for-Donbas idea in writing, with NATO partners behind it. Zelensky says that is the only point at which he would take it to a referendum. Moscow's stated conditions currently rule out the NATO half.