KYIV: Washington suggested Kyiv cede land to Moscow in exchange for joining Nato, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in comments released on Saturday, saying his country’s relationship with the Western alliance is “back on the agenda.”
Zelensky also warned of the dangers of Moscow’s push to redraw “influence” in Europe and said the Kremlin was “betting everything” on this winter’s military campaign. Moscow has pounded Ukraine in the run-up to winter, with Russian President Vladimir Putin showing no sign of backing down.
US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff met both Putin and Zelensky on Thursday after two days of talks in Abu Dhabi, which ended with no breakthrough. Negotiations did, however, lead to agreements that European countries join future talks on ending the war.
In Dublin on Friday, Europe chose five countries — France, Germany, Italy, the UK and Poland — to send representatives to the talks. “The Americans raised a question: ‘What if Ukraine joins Nato? Would Ukraine withdraw from Donbas?’ This was the first time this had been raised,” Zelensky said, adding: “After providing Ukraine with this kind of defence support, seeing this kind of development of our army and this strength in our defence, they cannot simply let Ukraine go.” He believed “Nato is back on the agenda” as Ukraine — with almost five years of combat experience — can make the alliance “stronger.” Nato and Washington have not yet commented.
Kyiv seeks guarantees
Kyiv — seeking post-war support for its army — was in talks on “specific” guarantees from Western countries, Zelensky said. Before agreeing to anything, he added, he would ask Ukrainians “do we accept it or not?”. He insisted Ukraine would not recognise any land seized by Moscow’s troops as Russian.
Russia has consistently said Kyiv joining Nato is a red line and in 2022 launched its invasion, saying the West planned to incorporate Ukraine into the alliance. Putin has for years logged grievances at Nato. Meeting US envoys this week, he ruled out agreeing to foreign peacekeeping troops in Ukraine. And throughout the negotiations, the Kremlin has ruled out wider ceasefires. But Putin earlier this week proposed a “humanitarian” mission to the eastern town of Kostyantynivka — which Moscow announced it had seized in summer but where Kyiv says fighting continues.
Zelensky said this was a ploy to get Kyiv to withdraw from the embattled city and open the road to more settlements in the Donetsk region. If Ukraine gave up Kostyantynivka, “their next steps will be our other cities in Donbas. That is the thinking behind this idea”, he added.
Moscow’s troops have inched westwards but have been unable to seize the whole of the Donetsk region. Moscow, Zelensky said, had also rejected an energy ceasefire at the Abu Dhabi talks.
‘First, end the war’
Russia has tried to reframe negotiations on ending the war — Europe’s worst since WWII — into a conversation on the continent’s wider security. In 2021, before its Ukraine invasion, Moscow issued an ultimatum to the West to pull back Nato troops from eastern Europe. This week, Moscow’s chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said the Kremlin’s aim now was for a “new, modern Yalta” — referring to the 1945 conference in which Western leaders divided Europe with Joseph Stalin.
Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2026
