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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Washington had proposed the idea of Ukraine ceding land to Russia in exchange for NATO membership as efforts to bring an end to the war continue.
“The Americans raised a question: ‘What if Ukraine joins NATO? Would Ukraine withdraw from Donbas?’ This was the first time this had been raised,” Zelenskyy told reporters on Friday in comments embargoed until Saturday, the AFP news agency reported.
Zelenskyy added that Ukraine was discussing “specific security guarantees” from NATO and the European Union and that he would ask Ukrainians if they accepted the terms should Western nations confirm.
“I have no right to make that decision on my own,” he said.
It comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin met with US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Moscow earlier this week.
During their meeting, Putin signalled that Russia would not back down on territorial demands to control parts of Ukraine and rejected the idea of foreign peacekeeping troops being deployed in the country.
The US envoys later met with Zelenskyy in Ireland on Thursday to discuss ongoing diplomatic efforts, with the trio announcing that, moving forward, Europe would have a “voice” in peace negotiations.
“This will allow us to address the broader postwar European security arrangements alongside the territorial issues between Ukraine and Russia,” Kushner wrote in a post on X.
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova appeared to dampen hopes of such an agreement on Friday, saying that as far as her department was aware, “the issue was not discussed during the talks with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Moscow.”
In further comments shared by the ministry on Friday morning, presidential aide Yuri Ushakov added: “For our part, the position of the Europeans has been comprehensively outlined.”
“They are striving by every means possible to join the negotiations, but, as our President has said, they must decide whether they want peace or the continuation of the war,” he said.
Additional sources • AFP