Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is prepared to abandon Ukraine’s bid to join NATO but has firmly rejected any proposal that would see Kyiv surrender territory to Russia, as international efforts to broker peace continue.
Speaking on Sunday, Zelensky said that after the United States and several European countries declined to support Ukraine’s accession to the Western military alliance, he now expects alternative security guarantees in return.
“These security guarantees are an opportunity to prevent another wave of Russian aggression,” Zelensky told journalists. “This is already a compromise on our part.”
He said any guarantees must be legally binding and approved by the US Congress. Zelensky added that he was awaiting feedback from his team following talks between Ukrainian and US military officials in Stuttgart, Germany.
The remarks came ahead of meetings with Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Zelensky’s willingness to step back from NATO membership represents a significant diplomatic gain for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has long argued that Ukraine joining the alliance would threaten Russia’s security. Just days before Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Putin claimed Ukraine’s NATO ambitions posed a direct risk to Moscow.
Following a five-hour meeting, the US government said in a post on Witkoff’s social media account that “a lot of progress was made”.
Washington has spent months attempting to balance the demands of both sides, as Trump presses for a rapid end to the war and grows increasingly frustrated by stalled negotiations.
However, major disagreements remain, particularly over Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, much of which is under Russian control.
Putin has demanded that Ukrainian forces withdraw from the remaining areas of Donetsk still held by Kyiv, a condition Ukraine has rejected.
Zelensky said the United States had suggested that Ukraine pull back from parts of Donetsk to create a demilitarised free economic zone, a proposal he described as unworkable.
“I do not consider this fair,” he said, questioning who would manage such a zone. He added that if Ukrainian troops were required to withdraw several kilometres, Russian forces should be expected to retreat by the same distance.
Describing the issue as “very sensitive”, Zelensky said the most realistic option would be to freeze the conflict along the current line of contact. “Today a fair possible option is that we stand where we stand,” he said.
Russia’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov told the business daily Kommersant that Russian police and National Guard forces would remain in parts of Donetsk even if a demilitarised zone were created under a future peace plan.
Ushakov warned that reaching a compromise could take time, saying that US proposals which had taken Russian demands into account had been “worsened” by changes suggested by Ukraine and its European allies.
In comments broadcast on Russian state television, he said Moscow would have “very strong objections” to the revised proposals and confirmed that territorial issues were discussed earlier this month when Witkoff and Kushner met with Putin.
Zelensky said he spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday before talks with Trump’s envoys, thanking him on X for his support and saying the two countries were coordinating closely.
Macron said France would remain committed to building a lasting peace that guarantees Ukraine’s security and sovereignty, as well as that of Europe.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has led European support for Ukraine alongside Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, warned over the weekend that the era of “Pax Americana” in Europe was largely over. He said Putin was seeking to redraw Europe’s borders and restore the former Soviet Union.
“If Ukraine falls, he won’t stop,” Merz said at a party conference in Munich.
Putin has denied any plans to restore the Soviet Union or attack European allies.
Meanwhile, fighting continues on both sides.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched ballistic missiles and 138 attack drones overnight, with 110 intercepted or shot down. Strikes were reported at six locations.
Zelensky said hundreds of thousands of families across southern, eastern and north-eastern Ukraine remain without power, as crews work to restore electricity, heating and water following large-scale overnight attacks.
Over the past week, he said Russia has launched more than 1,500 strike drones, nearly 900 guided aerial bombs and 46 missiles at Ukraine.
Russia’s defence ministry said its air defences shot down 235 Ukrainian drones late on Saturday and early Sunday.
In Russia’s Belgorod region, a drone attack injured a man and set his house on fire in the village of Yasnye Zori, according to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
Ukrainian drones also struck an oil depot in Uryupinsk in Russia’s Volgograd region, causing a fire, and targeted the town of Afipsky in the Krasnodar region, where explosions shattered windows in residential buildings near an oil refinery.
