US negotiators have, for the first time, asked Kyiv whether Ukraine would agree to withdraw its remaining troops from the eastern Donbas region if the country became a NATO member, Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday. Zelensky told reporters there is no concrete proposal yet, and said that if the US and other NATO countries confirm the idea, he will put the issue to public discussion. He reiterated that Ukraine does not retreat and does not give up its lands to what he called terrorists.

The comments follow visits by US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, who held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and then travelled to Dublin to meet Zelensky ahead of an EU summit. According to Zelensky, the US is discussing bilateral guarantees modelled on NATO Articles 4 and 5, and when asked whether American troops would be deployed in Ukraine, the negotiators answered no. Kyiv is also discussing guarantees from NATO and the European Union, arms supplies, army financing and a reconstruction plan with clearly defined funding sources. Zelensky said that if he received a proposal containing security guarantees, no constraints on the military and funds for rebuilding, he would put it to a referendum.S1S2

Zelensky said the US proposal made him believe that NATO is back on the agenda, after US officials had previously said Ukrainian membership was off the table. He cautioned, however, that Putin's signals suggest an extremely difficult conversation. Russia has consistently demanded limits on Ukraine's army size, territorial concessions and guaranteed neutrality, conditions Kyiv rejects because they would hamper its ability to ward off future invasion. Ukraine would also refuse to enshrine neutrality in its Constitution, since Zelensky argues such a status would not ensure long-term security.S1S2

Russia currently occupies roughly a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including most of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that make up the Donbas. Ukraine still controls small portions there, and ceding them would be a modest concession in practical terms but symbolically significant, as it would amount to accepting the Donbas as Russian. Kyiv has said it will not recognise occupied territories as Russian.S1S2

On the battlefield and in talks, Zelensky described a Moscow-proposed humanitarian corridor from a town in Donetsk region as an attempt to force Ukrainian troops out of Kostiantynivka, where fighting continues and almost no civilians remain. He warned that Russia wants to take the town and then move on to Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. At the Abu Dhabi talks on November 10–11, the Russian delegation said it had no authority to negotiate an energy truce, and Zelensky said Moscow's response on stopping strikes on energy infrastructure was to tell Kyiv to resolve it with Putin. Zelensky suggested several people would represent Europe in the next round, with leaders of the EU and NATO among the options discussed.S1S2