BERLIN (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday expressed his willingness to drop his country’s bid to join NATO in exchange for Western security guarantees, but rejected U.S. efforts to cede territory to Russia as he held talks with U.S. envoys on ending the war.
Zelenskyy met with US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The Ukrainian leader posted pictures of the negotiating table with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz sitting next to him in front of the US delegation.
Answering questions from journalists in audio clips from a WhatsApp group chat ahead of the talks, Zelenskyy said that since the US and some European nations have rejected Ukraine’s push to join NATO, Kiev expects the West to offer a set of guarantees similar to those offered to alliance members.
“These security guarantees are an opportunity to prevent another wave of Russian aggression,” he said. “And that’s already a compromise on our part.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has presented Ukraine’s bid to join NATO as a major threat to Moscow’s security and a reason to launch a full-scale invasion in February 2022. The Kremlin has called on Ukraine to drop its bid to join the alliance as part of any possible peace settlement.
Zelenskyy stressed that any security assurances should be legally binding and supported by the US Congress, adding that he expected an update from his team following a meeting between Ukrainian and US military officials in Stuttgart, Germany.
The US government said in a social media post on Witkoff’s account after the five-hour meeting that “a lot of progress was made”.
Washington has tried for months to push through each side’s demands as Trump pushes for a quick end to the war in Russia and grows increasingly exasperated by delays. The search for possible compromises has encountered major obstacles, including control of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, which is largely occupied by Russian forces.
Difficult obstacles remain
Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the part of Donetsk region still under his control, among key conditions for peace, a demand rejected by Kiev.
Zelensky said the US had presented an idea for Ukraine to withdraw from Donetsk and create a demilitarized free economic zone there, a proposal he dismissed as impossible.
“I don’t consider this fair, because who will manage this economic zone?” he said. “If we are talking about a buffer zone along the contact line, if we are talking about an economic zone, and we think that there should be only a police mission and the troops should withdraw, then the question is very simple. If Ukrainian troops withdraw 5-10 kilometers, for example, then why don’t Russian troops withdraw deeper into the occupied territories at the same distance?”
Zelenskyy described the issue as “very sensitive” and insisted on freezing the line of contact, saying that “a fair possible option today is to stay where we are.”
Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, told business daily Kommersant that the Russian police and national guard would remain in parts of the Donetsk region, even if it becomes a demilitarized zone under a prospective peace plan.
Ushakov warned that the search for a compromise could take a long time, noting that US proposals that take into account Russia’s demands have been “worsened” by changes proposed by Ukraine and its European allies.
In a speech broadcast on Russian state television on Sunday, Ushakov said “the contribution of Ukrainians and Europeans to these documents is unlikely to be constructive,” warning that Moscow “will have very strong objections.”
Ushakov added that the territorial issue was actively discussed in Moscow when Witkoff and Kushner met with Putin earlier this month. “The Americans know and understand our position,” he said.
Zelenskyy said he spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday just before talks with Trump’s envoys, thanking X for his support and adding that “we are closely coordinating and working together for the sake of our common security.”
Macron promised on X that “France is and will remain on Ukraine’s side to build a solid and lasting peace – one that can guarantee the security and sovereignty of Ukraine and Europe in the long term.”
Merz, who led European efforts to support Ukraine alongside Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, said on Saturday that “the decades of ‘Pax Americana’ are largely over for us in Europe and for us in Germany as well.”
He warned that Putin’s goal is “a fundamental change of borders in Europe, the restoration of the old Soviet Union within its borders.”
“If Ukraine falls, he will not stop,” Merz warned during a party conference in Munich on Saturday.
Putin has denied plans to restore the Soviet Union or attack any European allies.
Russia and Ukraine exchange airstrikes
The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia launched ballistic missiles and 138 attack drones over Ukraine overnight. The air force said 110 were intercepted or shot down, but missile and drone strikes were recorded at six locations.
Zelenskyy said on Sunday that hundreds of thousands of families were still without electricity in the southern, eastern and northeastern regions and that work was continuing to restore electricity, heat and water in several regions following a large-scale attack the previous night.
The Ukrainian president said that over the past week, Russia has launched more than 1,500 attack drones, nearly 900 aerial guided bombs and 46 missiles of various types into Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry said air defenses shot down 235 Ukrainian drones late Saturday and early Sunday.
In the Belgorod region, a drone injured a man and set his house on fire in the village of Yasnye Zori, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
Ukrainian drones hit an oil depot in Uryupinsk in the Volgograd region, starting a fire, according to regional governor Andrei Bocharov.
In the Krasnodar region, Ukrainian drones attacked the city of Afipsky, where an oil refinery is located. Authorities said the explosions shattered windows in residential buildings but did not report any damage to the refinery.
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Ciobanu reported from Warsaw, Poland.
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