US representatives (click here) asked during recent negotiations whether Ukraine would be willing to withdraw its military forces from the Donbas region in exchange for admission to NATO, President Volodymyr Zelensky told journalists on Friday, Nov. 13.
Zelensky stated that US officials raised the question for the first time during the latest diplomatic round.
While Kyiv has consistently maintained that it will not retreat or surrender sovereign land, the president said any concrete package combining NATO membership, binding security guarantees, and reconstruction financing would be submitted directly to the Ukrainian public for consideration....
NATO has to be approached before all this is completed. The peace treaty would have to be signed by Russia, Ukraine, and NATO.
