US suggests Ukraine ‘trade territory for NATO seat’

KYIV - The United States has suggested for the first time that Ukraine cede land to Russia in exchange for joining NATO, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in comments released on Saturday, adding that Russia had rejected an energy target ceasefire at talks this week.

Zelensky said Russia was “betting everything” on this winter’s campaign in its war with Ukraine, while warning that the Kremlin’s demands to redraw Europe’s security architecture are “dangerous” and could lead to more wars.

Zelensky spoke to the media on Friday after visits to Denmark and Ireland, where he met with European leaders following two days of US-brokered Ukraine-Russia talks in Abu Dhabi.

The talks ended with no breakthrough in Europe’s worst war since World War II, but all sides agreed that European officials should be included in future negotiations.

“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 in the comments kept under embargo until Saturday.

He said Ukraine was discussing “specific security guarantees from NATO and the EU” and that if Western countries confirmed them “then I 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.”

US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff attended the Abu Dhabi talks and then met afterward with Putin and Zelensky separately.

Moscow turned down a proposal for a ceasefire in attacks on energy targets at the Abu Dhabi talks, Zelensky said.

“On the proposal for an energy ceasefire: the Russians don’t want it,” Zelensky said.

Putin’s proposal for a “humanitarian mission” to Kostyantynivka, Zelensky said, was a ploy to get Kyiv to withdraw from the embattled city and open the road to more settlements in the Donetsk region.

Russia said this year that it had seized the town but Ukraine has said fighting is ongoing.

“Putin simply wants us to leave Kostiantynivka so that they can move in and occupy the entire city that way,” Zelensky said.

Moscow’s troops have inched westwards since launching the invasion in February 2022, but have been unable to seize the whole of the Donetsk region.

Zelensky said the EU and NATO are Europe’s “only real security” and that Moscow’s bid to review the continent’s security was “dangerous because… it is precisely things like this that lead to wars or escalations.”