Zelensky proposes abandoning NATO aspirations but remains opposed to ceding territory to Russia
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday he was ready to abandon his country’s NATO bid in exchange for Western security guarantees, but rejected US willingness to cede territory to Russia as he spoke with US envoys to end the war.
Zelensky met with US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The Ukrainian leader published photos of the negotiating table with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz sitting next to him, facing the American delegation.
Responding to journalists’ questions in audio excerpts from a WhatsApp group chat ahead of the talks, Zelenskyy said that since the United States and some European countries rejected Ukraine’s request to join NATO, kyiv expects the West to offer a set of guarantees similar to those offered to alliance members.
“These security guarantees are an opportunity to prevent a new wave of Russian aggression,” he said. “And that’s already a compromise on our part.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has framed Ukraine’s attempt to join the alliance as a major threat to Moscow’s security and a reason to launch a full-scale invasion in February 2022. The Kremlin has demanded that Ukraine renounce its candidacy as part of any possible peace deal.
Ahead of a meeting to discuss the US proposal for peace in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin called European counter-proposals “unacceptable” and said his country was ready for war if Europe wanted it.
Zelenskyy stressed that any security guarantee would have to be legally binding and backed by the US Congress, adding that he was awaiting an update from his team following a meeting between Ukrainian and US military officials in Stuttgart, Germany.
Washington has been trying for months to meet each side’s demands as Trump insists on a quick end to the Russian war and grows increasingly exasperated by the delays. The search for possible compromises has faced major obstacles, including control of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, which is largely occupied by Russian forces.
Difficult obstacles remain
Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the part of the Donetsk region still under its control as a key condition for peace, a demand rejected by kyiv.
Zelensky said the United States had floated the idea that Ukraine would withdraw from Donetsk and create a demilitarized free economic zone there, a proposal he rejected as unworkable.
“I don’t find this fair, because who will manage this economic zone?” he said. “If we are talking about a buffer zone along the line of contact, if we are talking about an economic zone and we think that only a police mission should be present there and the troops should withdraw, then the question is very simple. If the Ukrainian troops are withdrawing five to ten kilometers, for example, why are the Russian troops not withdrawing deeper into the occupied territories, the same distance?”
Zelenskyy called the issue “very sensitive” and insisted on a freeze along the contact line, saying that “today a reasonable and possible option is to stay where we are.”
Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuriy Ushakov, told the Kommersant business daily that Russian police and national guards would remain in parts of the Donetsk region even if they become a demilitarized zone under a future peace plan.
Ushakov warned that finding a compromise could take a long time, pointing out that US proposals that took Russian demands into account had been “worsened” by changes proposed by Ukraine and its European allies.
Speaking to Russian state television in a speech broadcast on Sunday, Ushakov said that “the contribution of Ukrainians and Europeans to these documents is unlikely to be constructive”, warning that Moscow “would have very strong objections”.
Ushakov added that the territorial issue was actively discussed in Moscow when Witkoff and Kushner met with Putin earlier this month. “The Americans know and understand our position,” he said.
Zelensky said he spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday just before talks with Trump’s envoys, thanking him on X for his support and adding that “we are coordinating closely and working together for the sake of our common security.”
Macron promised on
Ukraine is seeking support from its European neighbors during ongoing U.S.-brokered peace talks with Russia, particularly over concerns that a current proposal could favor Moscow’s position.
Merz, who led European efforts to support Ukraine alongside Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, said Saturday that “the decades of ‘Pax Americana’ are largely over for us in Europe, and for us in Germany as well.”
He warned that Putin’s goal was “a fundamental change of borders in Europe, the restoration of the former Soviet Union within its borders.”
“If Ukraine falls, he will not stop,” Merz warned on Saturday at a party congress in Munich.
Putin has denied plans to restore the Soviet Union or attack European allies.
Russia and Ukraine exchange air attacks
The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia launched ballistic missiles and 138 attack drones into Ukraine overnight. The air force said 110 planes were intercepted or shot down, but missile and drone strikes were recorded at six locations.
Zelenskyy said on Sunday that hundreds of thousands of families were still without power in the southern, eastern and northeastern regions and that work was continuing to restore electricity, heat and water to several areas after a large-scale attack the previous night.
The Ukrainian president said that over the past week, Russia launched more than 1,500 attack drones, almost 900 guided aerial bombs and 46 missiles of different types on Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry said air defenses shot down 235 Ukrainian drones late Saturday and early Sunday.
In the Belgorod region, a drone injured a man and set his house on fire in the village of Yasnye Zori, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
Ukrainian drones struck an oil depot in Uryupinsk, Volgograd region, sparking a fire, according to regional governor Andrei Bocharov.
In the Krasnodar region, Ukrainian drones attacked the town of Afipsky, where there is an oil refinery. Authorities said the explosions shattered windows of residential buildings, but reported no damage to the refinery.
