Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said US negotiators asked for the first time whether Kyiv would withdraw its remaining forces from the Donbas in exchange for NATO membership.
"The Americans asked: Will Ukraine leave Donbas if [Ukraine] joins NATO?" Zelenskyy told reporters on November 13.
He added that his country fundamentally opposes giving up its territories but would consider putting a comprehensive security package to the Ukrainian public if the US and other NATO partners confirm concrete guarantees.
The Donbas is a key eastern region of Ukraine comprising the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Russia has occupied large parts of it since 2014 and formally claimed to annex both regions in 2022 following its full-scale invasion.
Explaining his response to the proposal, Zelenskyy said he would tell the Ukrainian people the pros and cons of such a potential arrangement. "But we need specifics, which are not yet available, and all this is under discussion," he added.
The Ukrainian president stressed that he is not in a position to unilaterally decide himself. However, he made clear Kyiv would not formally recognize any part of Ukraine as belonging to Russia.
Zelenskyy did not mention the exact circumstances the idea was floated, but said it was suggested by the United States. Washington has not yet commented on his claim, but US President Donald Trump's diplomatic envoy, Jared Kushner wrote on X that "lasting peace requires credible security guarantees for Ukraine."
Previously, US officials had said that Ukrainian NATO membership was off the table but noted that the country could receive security guarantees comparable to the membership in the alliance.
Russia says NATO membership for Ukraine is unacceptable and has said a peace deal should include a bar on Ukraine ever joining the alliance. It has also repeatedly threatened to target Western troops if they were deployed to the country.
The transfer of the entire Donetsk region to Russian control, however, has been one of the Kremlin's key demands for ending the war.
Having achieved little to no success on the largely stalled battlefield this year, Moscow has continued to pound Ukraine's energy and civilian infrastructure with air strikes as the fifth wartime winter approaches.
Since 2022, Russia has repeatedly exploited cold weather to intensify its attacks, leaving thousands of Ukrainians without heat or electricity in an effort to pressure Kyiv into accepting its hard-line conditions for peace.
On November 14, Russian strikes on Ukraine's major southern city of Zaporizhzhya left at least 22 people, including three children, injured, while damaging residential buildings, cars, and an educational facility.
Local residents Anna and Oleksandr told RFE/RL they narrowly escaped the attack. Anna said the couple had been preparing breakfast when an air raid alert sent them rushing to the basement of their apartment building.
After the attack, they found their kitchen heavily damaged, with shattered glass scattered across the floor, she added. "We don't always take shelter, but today some kind of gut feeling told us to."
The developments come after the conclusion of trilateral talks between US, Russian, and Ukrainian representatives in Abu Dhabi on November 10-11.
Following the talks, US President Donald Trump's diplomatic envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, met separately with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy.
The latest diplomatic efforts yielded no breakthrough in attempts to end the war. The only tangible outcome was an agreement by both sides to begin preparations for a large-scale prisoner exchange.
