US representatives asked Ukraine whether it would be ready to withdraw its troops from Donbas if it were admitted to NATO. If partners provide commitments for strong guarantees, the issue of territories could be put to the Ukrainian public. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this at a meeting with journalists on 13 November.
According to him, in the previous talks the United States asked such a question for the first time. Ukraine has repeatedly said before that it will not retreat and will not hand over its lands to terrorists.
Ukraine and its partners are currently discussing a comprehensive security package with specific security guarantees from NATO and the EU, a strong Ukrainian army with an appropriate number of troops, weapons, financial support for the Recovery Plan with clearly identified sources.
“If the American side confirms exactly this to us together with other NATO colleagues, then I will ask our society’s opinion: do we accept it or not? I have no right not to do this at my own discretion. But we need specifics, which do not yet exist, and all of this is under discussion,” he said.
However, Ukraine will under no circumstances recognise the occupied territories as part of Russia.
“If there is such a proposal, I, as President, will enter into an open dialogue with society and say: ‘Look, this is where we are, this is how all the partners have united and this is how they see it going forward.’ Of course, without any recognition of the occupied territories as Russia’s,” he said.
Zelenskyy told US representatives that Russia cannot be trusted — its leader is simply complicating mediation and pushing back the end of the war: “When Putin says something about state borders, that is certainly not a reduction of Russia’s territory, right? So there is no trust in the comrade in the Kremlin.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes that NATO membership would reduce the likelihood of renewed aggression against Ukraine. He called it the necessary minimum for Ukraine to be given security guarantees modelled on NATO’s Article 5.
“They say: these are bilateral security guarantees. Similar to what Israel has. Some other countries have them too. And what about the Middle East? What was there? There were American security guarantees. We do not know exactly what they were, but some Arab countries and the United States have certain arrangements, and there is an American presence there; they are helped by American aviation, the American navy, there are American bases there. And when Iran attacked these countries, it attacked those bases. And as we all remember, to protect the bases they also protected the territory with appropriate air defence, with ‘Patriot’ systems and other means. So this is also an option for how certain security guarantees can work,” the President said.
At the same time, Zelenskyy is not sure this would definitely work, because NATO has acted in unity only once, after the terrorist attack in the United States in 2001.
According to the President, Denmark and the “Nordic countries” support Ukraine’s membership of NATO. Ukraine can strengthen the Alliance, and Zelenskyy believes the membership issue is back on the agenda.