Zelensky says U.S. floated trading Donbas withdrawal for NATO membership

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said U.S. negotiators have raised for the first time the idea of Ukraine withdrawing from the eastern Donbas region in exchange for joining NATO. Zelensky made the remarks to reporters on November 13; they were released on November 14. He stressed that Ukraine will not cede territory, but said he would consult Ukrainian society — possibly through a referendum — if the United States and its allies offered a comprehensive package of security guarantees, no limits on Ukraine's military, and reconstruction funding.

Washington links the two issues for the first time

Zelensky quoted the American question as: 'What if Ukraine joins NATO? Would Ukraine withdraw from Donbas? This was the first time this has been raised.' The disclosure followed U.S.-mediated talks in Abu Dhabi on November 10-11; U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner then travelled to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before meeting Zelensky in Dublin. Washington had previously said Ukrainian NATO membership was off the table. Zelensky said the question made him feel that 'NATO is back on the agenda', while cautioning: 'You have also heard Putin's signals, and this is an extremely difficult conversation.'

Kyiv's conditions: guarantees, army, reconstruction funds

Zelensky set out the conditions he would want in any wider settlement: credible security guarantees from NATO and the European Union, a well-equipped Ukrainian army with long-term financial support, and a funded reconstruction plan. He stressed that no arrangement would formally recognise occupied territory as Russian, and that under the arrangement he asked about, no U.S. troops would be stationed on Ukrainian soil. Notably, there is no formal U.S. proposal on the table: Washington and NATO have not confirmed Zelensky's account, and NATO membership requires the unanimous agreement of all allies — not something the United States can promise alone.

Moscow's position: all of Donbas, no NATO expansion

Russia currently occupies roughly a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including most of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that make up Donbas, and demands that Ukraine withdraw from the parts of Donbas it still holds. Moscow has consistently opposed Ukrainian NATO membership, describing the alliance's eastward expansion as one of the reasons for its full-scale invasion in 2022. Russia's chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, has recently pressed demands that also include a complete overhaul of the European security architecture, echoing draft treaties Moscow proposed in December 2021. Analysts note that the Donbas land Ukraine still controls is small in area but hugely symbolic — accepting a withdrawal would amount to accepting that Donbas is Russian.

What happens next

Ukraine has long sought NATO membership as a condition of any peace deal, to deter future threats. Whether Washington confirms Zelensky's account, and whether Moscow would accept any arrangement involving NATO membership, remain open questions; talks continue, with territory and security guarantees still at the heart of the deadlock.

(File photo: Zelensky at a press conference.)