Ukraine NATO bid: US floats Donbas swap, Zelensky says

Ukraine NATO membership has been linked to territory for the first time by US negotiators, who asked whether Kyiv would pull its remaining troops out of the eastern Donbas region in return for joining the alliance, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in comments released on Saturday, 14 November. He stressed that no concrete offer exists and that any such deal would have to go to a public vote.

Zelensky spoke to reporters on Friday after visits to Denmark and Ireland, but his remarks were kept under embargo until Saturday. The comments were reported by the BBC, AFP via the Bangkok Post, and Al Jazeera with Reuters.

What the US asked about Ukraine NATO entry

"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, according to the remarks released by his office.

The question came up during US-brokered talks between Ukraine and Russia in Abu Dhabi this week. US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff attended those talks and then held separate meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and with Zelensky in Dublin.

Zelensky said the idea made him feel that "Nato is back on the agenda", but he warned that Putin's signals showed it would be "an extremely difficult conversation".

Zelensky's conditions

The Ukrainian leader said he would not simply order troops out of Donbas. Instead, he set out what any proposal would need before he would put it to the public in a referendum:

• firm security guarantees from NATO and the European Union;
• no limits on the size or strength of Ukraine's armed forces;
• money to fund the military and to rebuild the country.

"I have no right to make that decision on my own," he said, according to AFP. He also said he would not change Ukraine's constitution to make the country neutral, arguing that neutrality would not bring lasting security.

Why Donbas matters

Donbas is made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Russia controls most of this industrial area and holds roughly a fifth of Ukraine's territory overall. Kyiv still holds a smaller part of Donetsk, and giving that up would be a heavy symbolic blow, the BBC noted.

Moscow wants Ukraine to withdraw from the areas it still controls, while also opposing its entry into NATO. Russia has also revived demands from 2021 that NATO stop expanding near its borders and pull back military infrastructure from central and eastern European members.

No breakthrough in Abu Dhabi

The talks ended without a major deal, though all sides agreed that European officials should join future rounds. Apart from renewed prisoner exchanges, little progress was made, Al Jazeera reported. Our earlier coverage of the Ukraine peace talks in Abu Dhabi sets out what was on the table.

Zelensky said Russia had rejected a proposed ceasefire on attacks against energy targets. He also described Putin's offer of a "humanitarian mission" to the town of Kostiantynivka as a ploy to make Ukrainian forces leave so that Russian troops could move in. He has previously warned of new Russian energy strikes as winter sets in.

Fighting continues

The diplomacy has not stopped the attacks. Russian officials said a Ukrainian drone strike killed a couple and their two-year-old daughter in the Belgorod region on Saturday. Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 96 drones overnight, of which 81 were shot down or jammed.

What comes next

The question of Ukraine NATO membership is also likely to come up as world leaders meet in the coming days. A Trump, Xi and Putin summit is expected around the APEC meeting in China next week, which could shape how far Washington and Moscow move on the war.

For now, Zelensky said the EU and NATO remain Europe's "only real security", and he called Moscow's push to redraw the continent's security order "dangerous".

Image: Volodymyr Zelensky, who described the Ukraine NATO question raised by US envoys, during a visit to the Council of Europe. Photo by Le Commissaire via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0.