Ukraine Donbas ask signals potential shift in Washington’s negotiation tactics

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said US peace envoys asked whether Ukraine would be willing to cede the Donbas region to Russia in exchange for Nato membership, signalling a potential shift in Washington’s negotiating tactics, as a top US envoy called for “direct engagement” between Europe and Moscow.

As the full-scale war between Ukraine and Russia heads toward the end of its fifth year in February, the administration of US president Donald Trump is trying to make a breakthrough in the peace negotiations it’s moderating.

“It was the first time this had been raised,” Zelenskiy told reporters in his office in Kyiv about the plan involving the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the nation’s east. “We are discussing with our partners a comprehensive security package that could be offered to us in the negotiations.”

Russian president Vladimir Putin continues to seek full control of the Donbas, where his forces are making grinding assaults to try to seize a fortress belt of cities they’ve failed to conquer in fighting dating back to 2014.

Fighting continued over the weekend with Ukrainian attacks on an oil and petrochemical plant in the Tatarstan region of central Russia.

Zelenskiy said that the package floated by Washington includes specific security guarantees from Nato and the European Union; a strong Ukrainian army, meaning an adequate number of troops, weapons and financial support for a specified period of time; and a recovery plan backed by funding with clearly identified sources.

“If the American side confirms precisely this to us, together with other Nato partners, then I will ask our Ukrainian society what it thinks: do we accept it or not?” Zelenskiy said. “I have no right to make that decision on my own.”

Zelenskiy said Kyiv is looking for security guarantees modelled on Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as an “absolute minimum”.

Last week, US envoys Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, and Steve Witkoff met their Ukrainian and Russian counterparts in Abu Dhabi for talks that yielded some progress, according to all sides, though with no concrete breakthrough.

[ US suggested idea of Ukraine ceding Donbas for membership of Nato, says ZelenskiyOpens in new window ]

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At a subsequent meeting in Moscow on Thursday, Putin told Witkoff and Kushner that the presence of foreign troops in Ukraine would threaten Russia’s security and was unacceptable.

Kushner said Saturday in a post on X that the Trump administration wants to see direct talks between Moscow and US allies in Europe, piggybacking on Russian demands to discuss Europe’s overall security arrangements.

“Our focus now is on facilitating direct engagement between Moscow and European partners and preparing the agenda for the next round of trilateral talks,” Kushner said.

Meanwhile, Kyiv faces what it sees as periodic pressure from Washington to accept unfavourable peace terms. The latest example is restrictions on the use of Starshield, a satellite-based communications system developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX for military purposes. – Bloomberg