US floats Ukraine ceding land to Russia in exchange for NATO membership: Zelenskyy
18 minutes ago
Putin has indicated that Russia will not back down on territorial demands to control parts of Ukraine and has rejected the idea of foreign peacekeeping troops being deployed in the country.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Washington had proposed the idea of Ukraine ceding land to Russia in exchange for NATO membership as efforts to bring an end to the war continue.
"The Americans raised a question: 'What if Ukraine joins NATO? Would Ukraine withdraw from Donbas?' This was the first time this had been raised," Zelenskyy told reporters on Friday in comments embargoed until Saturday, the AFP news agency reported.
Zelenskyy added that Ukraine was discussing "specific security guarantees" from NATO and the European Union and that he would ask Ukrainians if they accepted the terms should Western nations confirm.
"I have no right to make that decision on my own," he said.
It comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin met with US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Moscow earlier this week.
During their meeting, Putin signalled that Russia would not back down on territorial demands to control parts of Ukraine and rejected the idea of foreign peacekeeping troops being deployed in the country.
Copyright for this text belongs to Euronews.