The Trump administration is pressuring Ukraine to surrender the part of the eastern Donbas region that the Ukrainian Army still controls, offering American security guarantees if Kyiv withdraws, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview published on Wednesday.
The U.S. position aligns with a Russian demand that Ukraine hand over a roughly 50-mile-by-40-mile zone in the Donetsk region, part of the larger Donbas, as a condition for ending the war. Ukraine has refused, arguing that ceding the heavily fortified area would give Russia a staging ground for future attacks that would threaten not just Ukraine but also Europe.
Simply handing over the land would allow Russia to escape the immense costs it would incur in trying to seize the territory militarily. Ukraine says such a push would take the Russian Army years and inflict hundreds of thousands of losses on it.
Mr. Zelensky’s interview, with the news agency Reuters, offered a sign of how far apart Kyiv and Moscow remain in peace talks that have stalled during the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
Ukraine has long said that it cannot agree to a peace settlement before signing security guarantees with its Western partners. To do otherwise would leave Ukraine vulnerable to another Russian invasion, Ukrainian officials argue.
“The Americans are prepared to finalize these guarantees at a high level once Ukraine is ready to withdraw from Donbas,” Mr. Zelensky said. He made clear how heavy a concession that would be.
“President Trump, unfortunately, in my opinion, still chooses a strategy of putting more pressure on the Ukrainian side,” Mr. Zelensky said.
He added that retaining the part of the Donbas that Kyiv still controls would in itself help ensure Ukraine’s future security. “I would very much like the American side to understand that the eastern part of our country is part of our security guarantees,” he said.
More broadly, Mr. Zelensky said Ukraine was seeking clarity on how its partners would fund Kyiv’s future weapons purchases to defend itself after the fighting ends and how these countries would help protect Ukraine if Russia attacked again.
Mr. Zelensky has given a series of interviews to international news outlets as he tries to keep attention on the war in Ukraine while the world’s focus shifts to the war in the Middle East. He told the BBC last week that he had a “very bad feeling” about how the war on Iran would affect Ukraine’s own war.
The Ukrainian leader has said that Russia’s continuing attacks on Ukraine show that President Vladimir V. Putin is not interested in peace. In his interview with Reuters, Mr. Zelensky said that Russia intended to drag out the peace talks until the Trump administration lost interest. Mr. Zelensky said there was a chance that could happen.
Talks involving Russia, Ukraine and the United States have been on pause since the war in Iran began late last month. Mr. Zelensky’s comments to Reuters came after a round of talks in Miami over the weekend between Ukrainian negotiators and Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration’s envoy for peace talks, and Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law.
The status of the Donbas has long been one of the most intractable issues in any discussion of peace between Ukraine and Russia.
As early as 2022, when the full-scale war began, Mr. Putin demanded that Ukraine recognize parts of the region as breakaway states run by Russian proxies. At the time, those demands, along with calls for Ukraine to recognize Crimea as Russian and abandon any ambition to join NATO, were viewed in Kyiv as unacceptable.
In polls, a growing number of Ukrainians now acknowledge the possibility that Ukraine might lose the region, though the military has rejected any suggestion of withdrawing.
Ukraine has offered a cease-fire along the current front line in the Donbas. This year, negotiators explored a possible American-backed compromise in which a demilitarized zone would be created in the region.
In a post on social media on Thursday, Mr. Zelensky said that Russia was trying to convince the United States that Moscow’s forces would eventually take the Donbas anyway, so Ukraine should go ahead and concede it now.
But in reality, Mr. Zelensky said, Russia understands “how long it would take them to capture this territory, with losses of 28, 30, even 35 thousand soldiers per month.”
“And it’s still not certain they would succeed in seizing it,” he added.
Ukrainian military experts say it would be highly dangerous to leave the territory. “There are no peace talks; there is an attempt to force Ukraine to capitulate,” said Mykhailo Samus, the director of the independent New Geopolitics Research Network in Kyiv.
Russia has intensified its offensive operations in the area, according to Ukraine’s commander in chief, though Ukrainian forces do not appear to be at immediate risk of a collapse on the front.
Russian forces are seeking to make civilian life untenable for the roughly 190,000 inhabitants of the Ukrainian-controlled area. On Monday, Russia struck a dam with two guided aerial bombs, and water rationing schedules will be introduced in the region.
Master_McKnowledge on
Oh yes, and we all remember how the policy of appeasement played out when the strategically defensive area of the Sudetenland was ceded to Nazi Germany in 1938.
tabakista on
The same security guarantees they got for giving up all their nukes?
Relative-Cold290 on
Yeah, and guarantees from USA is worth nothing today. As long as they can win something they can backstab you.
spiringTankmonger on
US security guarantees are worthless.
Nothing that Trump did made me believe that he would honor his commitments, and whoever follows him will be elected by the same spiteful, self-obsessed electorate that gave us Trump.
Reliance on America is a security liability.
G_UK on
Even if Ukraine did take this shit US deal. Does anyone have any faith in a guarantee from America.
Unlikely_Target_3560 on
Yeah, why promise to fight russians tomorrow if you cant fight them today and you don’t have to give up anything to them. Trump logic…
reasonable_magic12 on
They spend their lives laughing that the French are always surrendering (which is false) and then they propose this
Narrow_Spinach_1400 on
Scam, nice try Trumpdiddy
atchijov on
While Trump is in WH, US “guarantees” worth shit. And after Trump removed from the WH, world should wait for few decades to see if US have learned the lesson.
vanKlompf on
Wait. So not only part that Russia controls. But also part under Ukrainian control??? Make that make sense.
BaldMigrant on
American security guarantees are obviously nonsense, but when it comes to land, let’s be realistic. Does anyone seriously think Ukraine can regain control of Donbass or Crimea? Without the actual on the ground support of Western allies (and thus regional war or worse), the chances are slim to say the least. People, especially EU leaders, need to realise this.
Drawing parallels with the Sudetenland fiasco or labelling current war criminals and dictators as the ‘next Hitler/Stalin’ only makes things more difficult. Stalin was Stalin, Putin is Putin, and the Sudetenland and Donbass are two different places.
CRE178 on
I’m sorry, but the US can be trusted to guarantee, if you’ll pardon my American, jack shit right now.
Footner on
I thought trump was going to end this war in a day
RottenPingu1 on
It’s not their war according to Trump..so their guarantees are a betrayal waiting to happen
-S-P-E-C-T-R-E- on
There is no piece of paper from either Trump or Putin that is worth it. The only guarantee for lasting peace in that region is that Russia is thrown out of all the occupied lands and fractures. If not then they’ll just keep coming back.
Aromatic-Deer3886 on
America is a traitor plain and simple
TestingHydra on
IDK but the Middle East is currently enjoying the benefits of US security. Yes they’re getting hit but they just really hate Iran given they haven’t told the IS to stop and instead encouraged them to continue.
But hey that’s what oil money gets you.
dumnezero on
The UAE & friends are showing how much US security guarantees are worth.
Public-Student-2160 on
Double cross
flossandbrush on
The problem is that Trump has zero credibility. On anything.
mcsmith610 on
Honestly. What’s the alternative? I want Ukraine to succeed, but what options do they have? It’s clear the world has drawn a line in what they’re willing to commit to, EU loan is on hold due to Hungary, Ukraine just signed a another defense deal with UK but it isn’t enough on its own.
So yeah, USA “can’t be trusted” but if the world wants the US to back off, everyone else needs to step into the fold. But it doesn’t sound like there is any interest in risking an expansion of the conflict from other countries providing more direct military and financial support to Ukraine.
So what does a realistic peace for Ukraine look like that doesn’t include giving up territory? It’s not a matter of what’s right and wrong, but what everyone is willing to commit to.
baalsebul on
As if you could trust Russia or USA …
EndeLarsson on
US already gave guarantees to Ukraine. It was for Ukraine to give up their nuclear arsenal. Did those guarantees mean anything?!
25 commenti
It’s a scam, we don’t buy
The Trump administration is pressuring Ukraine to surrender the part of the eastern Donbas region that the Ukrainian Army still controls, offering American security guarantees if Kyiv withdraws, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview published on Wednesday.
The U.S. position aligns with a Russian demand that Ukraine hand over a roughly 50-mile-by-40-mile zone in the Donetsk region, part of the larger Donbas, as a condition for ending the war. Ukraine has refused, arguing that ceding the heavily fortified area would give Russia a staging ground for future attacks that would threaten not just Ukraine but also Europe.
Simply handing over the land would allow Russia to escape the immense costs it would incur in trying to seize the territory militarily. Ukraine says such a push would take the Russian Army years and inflict hundreds of thousands of losses on it.
Mr. Zelensky’s interview, with the news agency Reuters, offered a sign of how far apart Kyiv and Moscow remain in peace talks that have stalled during the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
Ukraine has long said that it cannot agree to a peace settlement before signing security guarantees with its Western partners. To do otherwise would leave Ukraine vulnerable to another Russian invasion, Ukrainian officials argue.
“The Americans are prepared to finalize these guarantees at a high level once Ukraine is ready to withdraw from Donbas,” Mr. Zelensky said. He made clear how heavy a concession that would be.
“President Trump, unfortunately, in my opinion, still chooses a strategy of putting more pressure on the Ukrainian side,” Mr. Zelensky said.
He added that retaining the part of the Donbas that Kyiv still controls would in itself help ensure Ukraine’s future security. “I would very much like the American side to understand that the eastern part of our country is part of our security guarantees,” he said.
More broadly, Mr. Zelensky said Ukraine was seeking clarity on how its partners would fund Kyiv’s future weapons purchases to defend itself after the fighting ends and how these countries would help protect Ukraine if Russia attacked again.
Mr. Zelensky has given a series of interviews to international news outlets as he tries to keep attention on the war in Ukraine while the world’s focus shifts to the war in the Middle East. He told the BBC last week that he had a “very bad feeling” about how the war on Iran would affect Ukraine’s own war.
The Ukrainian leader has said that Russia’s continuing attacks on Ukraine show that President Vladimir V. Putin is not interested in peace. In his interview with Reuters, Mr. Zelensky said that Russia intended to drag out the peace talks until the Trump administration lost interest. Mr. Zelensky said there was a chance that could happen.
Talks involving Russia, Ukraine and the United States have been on pause since the war in Iran began late last month. Mr. Zelensky’s comments to Reuters came after a round of talks in Miami over the weekend between Ukrainian negotiators and Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration’s envoy for peace talks, and Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law.
The status of the Donbas has long been one of the most intractable issues in any discussion of peace between Ukraine and Russia.
As early as 2022, when the full-scale war began, Mr. Putin demanded that Ukraine recognize parts of the region as breakaway states run by Russian proxies. At the time, those demands, along with calls for Ukraine to recognize Crimea as Russian and abandon any ambition to join NATO, were viewed in Kyiv as unacceptable.
In polls, a growing number of Ukrainians now acknowledge the possibility that Ukraine might lose the region, though the military has rejected any suggestion of withdrawing.
Ukraine has offered a cease-fire along the current front line in the Donbas. This year, negotiators explored a possible American-backed compromise in which a demilitarized zone would be created in the region.
In a post on social media on Thursday, Mr. Zelensky said that Russia was trying to convince the United States that Moscow’s forces would eventually take the Donbas anyway, so Ukraine should go ahead and concede it now.
But in reality, Mr. Zelensky said, Russia understands “how long it would take them to capture this territory, with losses of 28, 30, even 35 thousand soldiers per month.”
“And it’s still not certain they would succeed in seizing it,” he added.
Ukrainian military experts say it would be highly dangerous to leave the territory. “There are no peace talks; there is an attempt to force Ukraine to capitulate,” said Mykhailo Samus, the director of the independent New Geopolitics Research Network in Kyiv.
Russia has intensified its offensive operations in the area, according to Ukraine’s commander in chief, though Ukrainian forces do not appear to be at immediate risk of a collapse on the front.
Russian forces are seeking to make civilian life untenable for the roughly 190,000 inhabitants of the Ukrainian-controlled area. On Monday, Russia struck a dam with two guided aerial bombs, and water rationing schedules will be introduced in the region.
Oh yes, and we all remember how the policy of appeasement played out when the strategically defensive area of the Sudetenland was ceded to Nazi Germany in 1938.
The same security guarantees they got for giving up all their nukes?
Yeah, and guarantees from USA is worth nothing today. As long as they can win something they can backstab you.
US security guarantees are worthless.
Nothing that Trump did made me believe that he would honor his commitments, and whoever follows him will be elected by the same spiteful, self-obsessed electorate that gave us Trump.
Reliance on America is a security liability.
Even if Ukraine did take this shit US deal. Does anyone have any faith in a guarantee from America.
Yeah, why promise to fight russians tomorrow if you cant fight them today and you don’t have to give up anything to them. Trump logic…
They spend their lives laughing that the French are always surrendering (which is false) and then they propose this
Scam, nice try Trumpdiddy
While Trump is in WH, US “guarantees” worth shit. And after Trump removed from the WH, world should wait for few decades to see if US have learned the lesson.
Wait. So not only part that Russia controls. But also part under Ukrainian control??? Make that make sense.
American security guarantees are obviously nonsense, but when it comes to land, let’s be realistic. Does anyone seriously think Ukraine can regain control of Donbass or Crimea? Without the actual on the ground support of Western allies (and thus regional war or worse), the chances are slim to say the least. People, especially EU leaders, need to realise this.
Drawing parallels with the Sudetenland fiasco or labelling current war criminals and dictators as the ‘next Hitler/Stalin’ only makes things more difficult. Stalin was Stalin, Putin is Putin, and the Sudetenland and Donbass are two different places.
I’m sorry, but the US can be trusted to guarantee, if you’ll pardon my American, jack shit right now.
I thought trump was going to end this war in a day
It’s not their war according to Trump..so their guarantees are a betrayal waiting to happen
There is no piece of paper from either Trump or Putin that is worth it. The only guarantee for lasting peace in that region is that Russia is thrown out of all the occupied lands and fractures. If not then they’ll just keep coming back.
America is a traitor plain and simple
IDK but the Middle East is currently enjoying the benefits of US security. Yes they’re getting hit but they just really hate Iran given they haven’t told the IS to stop and instead encouraged them to continue.
But hey that’s what oil money gets you.
The UAE & friends are showing how much US security guarantees are worth.
Double cross
The problem is that Trump has zero credibility. On anything.
Honestly. What’s the alternative? I want Ukraine to succeed, but what options do they have? It’s clear the world has drawn a line in what they’re willing to commit to, EU loan is on hold due to Hungary, Ukraine just signed a another defense deal with UK but it isn’t enough on its own.
So yeah, USA “can’t be trusted” but if the world wants the US to back off, everyone else needs to step into the fold. But it doesn’t sound like there is any interest in risking an expansion of the conflict from other countries providing more direct military and financial support to Ukraine.
So what does a realistic peace for Ukraine look like that doesn’t include giving up territory? It’s not a matter of what’s right and wrong, but what everyone is willing to commit to.
As if you could trust Russia or USA …
US already gave guarantees to Ukraine. It was for Ukraine to give up their nuclear arsenal. Did those guarantees mean anything?!