Kyiv, Nov. 14 (LaPresse) – US negotiators have asked, during recent talks, whether Ukraine would be willing to withdraw its military forces from Donbas in exchange for admission to NATO. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this while speaking to journalists on Friday. The Kyiv Post reported the news today. Zelensky said US officials raised the issue for the first time during the latest round of diplomatic negotiations. Kyiv has always maintained that it will neither withdraw nor cede territory, but Zelensky said that a concrete package combining NATO membership, binding security guarantees and reconstruction funding would be put directly to the Ukrainian public for consideration. “If the American side confirms this to us, together with other NATO colleagues, then I will ask our society for its opinion: do we accept or do we not accept? I do not have the right to decide otherwise at my own discretion. But specific details are needed, which do not yet exist, and all of this is still under discussion,” Zelensky said, while stressing that Ukraine would under no circumstances legally recognise the occupied Ukrainian territories as part of Russia. “If such a proposal is made, I, as president, will initiate an open dialogue with society and say: ‘Look, this is where we stand, this is how all our partners have come together, and this is how they see the future.’ Undoubtedly, without any recognition of the occupied territories as Russian,” Zelensky said.
Ukraine, Zelensky: “US proposes ceding Donbas in exchange for NATO membership”
Kyiv, Nov. 14 (LaPresse) – US negotiators have asked, during recent talks, whether Ukraine would be willing to withdraw its military forces from Donbas in exchange for admission to NATO. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this while speaking to journalists on Friday. The Kyiv Post reported the news today. Zelensky said US officials raised the issue for the first time during the latest round of diplomatic negotiations. Kyiv has always maintained that it will neither withdraw nor cede territory, but Zelensky said that a concrete package combining NATO membership, binding security guarantees and reconstruction funding would be put directly to the Ukrainian public for consideration. “If the American side confirms this to us, together with other NATO colleagues, then I will ask our society for its opinion: do we accept or do we not accept? I do not have the right to decide otherwise at my own discretion. But specific details are needed, which do not yet exist, and all of this is still under discussion,” Zelensky said, while stressing that Ukraine would under no circumstances legally recognise the occupied Ukrainian territories as part of Russia. “If such a proposal is made, I, as president, will initiate an open dialogue with society and say: ‘Look, this is where we stand, this is how all our partners have come together, and this is how they see the future.’ Undoubtedly, without any recognition of the occupied territories as Russian,” Zelensky said.