Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the United States raised the possibility of Ukraine withdrawing from its eastern Donbas region in exchange for joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, describing it as the first time Washington had presented the idea during negotiations to end the war with Russia.\n<\/p>\n
Zelensky disclosed this while speaking to journalists on Friday, with his comments released on Saturday, November 14, 2026, following two days of US-brokered peace talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.\n<\/p>\n
According to AFP, the Ukrainian leader said American negotiators had asked whether Ukraine would be prepared to withdraw from Donbas if it was allowed to join NATO.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Americans raised a question: \u2018What if Ukraine joins NATO? Would Ukraine withdraw from Donbas?\u2019 This was the first time this had been raised,\u201d Zelensky said.<\/p>\n
The proposal would involve Ukraine giving up territory in its eastern region of Donbas, which comprises Donetsk and Luhansk, as part of a possible arrangement to secure its membership of the Western military alliance.\n<\/p>\n
However, Zelensky said Ukraine was discussing specific security guarantees from NATO and the European Union, adding that any decision on territorial concessions would require the consent of Ukrainians.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cI will ask our Ukrainian society what it thinks: do we accept it or not? I have no right to make that decision on my own.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zelensky also said the proposed arrangement would depend on Western countries providing credible security guarantees to prevent another Russian invasion.\n<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cThat is why I believe NATO is back on the agenda. But you have also heard (Russian President Vladimir) Putin\u2019s signals, and this is an extremely difficult conversation.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
The Ukrainian president reiterated that Kyiv was not prepared to surrender its territory, but said he would consider putting the question before Ukrainians if a comprehensive security package was secured.\n<\/p>\n
In a separate development, Zelensky disclosed that Russia had rejected Ukraine\u2019s proposal for a ceasefire targeting energy infrastructure during the Abu Dhabi negotiations.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the proposal for an energy ceasefire: the Russians don\u2019t want it,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
He also accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of using a proposed humanitarian mission to the embattled eastern Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka as a pretext to force Ukrainian troops to withdraw.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cPutin simply wants us to leave Kostiantynivka so that they can move in and occupy the entire city that way,\u201d Zelensky said.<\/p>\n
The Ukrainian leader further warned that Russia was \u201cbetting everything\u201d on its military campaign during the coming winter, adding that Moscow\u2019s demands to reshape Europe\u2019s security arrangements were \u201cdangerous\u201d and could trigger further conflicts.\n<\/p>\n
The two-day negotiations in Abu Dhabi, which involved Russian and Ukrainian delegations and were mediated by US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, ended without a breakthrough.\n<\/p>\n
However, the parties agreed that European officials should be included in subsequent negotiations, according to AFP.\n<\/p>\n
The talks were part of renewed efforts by US President Donald Trump\u2019s administration to end the war, which began with Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.\n<\/p>\n
Ahead of the negotiations, Reuters reported that Russia remained insistent that Ukraine surrender the entire Donbas region before a peace agreement could be reached, while Zelensky had repeatedly rejected giving up territory defended by Ukrainian forces.\n<\/p>\n
Russian President Putin has also demanded that Ukraine withdraw its troops from Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, four regions Moscow claimed to have annexed in September 2022, although it does not control all the territories.\n<\/p>\n
The United States, Russia and Ukraine had previously held three other rounds of trilateral negotiations in January and February 2026, but diplomatic efforts stalled before the latest Abu Dhabi meeting, CBS News reported.<\/p>\n
Source: <\/p>\n
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the United States raised the possibility of Ukraine withdrawing from its eastern Donbas region in exchange for joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, describing… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17600\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}