Zelensky Says US Raised Territory-for-NATO Trade-Off

Detailed summary

The Ukrainian president said the U.S. raised NATO membership for his country in exchange for a Donbas withdrawal.

The United States has asked Ukraine whether it would withdraw troops from parts of the eastern Donbas region in exchange for NATO membership, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, signaling a potential shift in President Donald Trump’s previous opposition to Kyiv joining the Western military alliance.

Zelensky told reporters Friday that American negotiators raised the question for the first time, though he added that the discussions have not yielded a concrete proposal.

“The Americans asked: ‘If Ukraine joins NATO, will Ukraine withdraw from Donbas?’” Zelensky said in remarks released Saturday.

The Ukrainian president stressed that any arrangement would not involve recognizing occupied territories as Russian, while also rejecting the possibility of Ukraine committing to neutrality, saying that would require changing the country’s constitution.

“If Putin expects Ukraine’s neutrality to be enshrined, that’s not going to happen,” he said. “We’re not in NATO right now anyway.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has long said NATO membership for Ukraine is a red line for his country, citing the issue as one reason for launching his invasion of Kyiv in February 2022.

Earlier this week, Russian, Ukrainian and U.S. officials met in Abu Dhabi for their first trilateral negotiations in nine months. Meanwhile, European officials held separate talks with U.S. and Ukrainian counterparts there without engaging directly with Moscow.

The inquiry involves land in the Donbas that Ukrainian forces still control and Russian troops have failed to capture. Agreeing to pull back would force Ukrainians to weigh ceding territory their military has fought to defend against the promise of alliance protection from future Russian aggression.

The reported question marks a notable departure from Trump’s earlier stance. In an August 2025 interview with Fox News, Trump ruled out Kyiv’s entry into the alliance, saying, “They’re not going to be a part of NATO.” At the time, he suggested European…

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