Zelenskyy offers to drop NATO bid for security guarantees but rejects US
push to cede territory
[December 15, 2025]
By STEFANIE DAZIO and CLAUDIA CIOBANU
BERLIN (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday voiced
readiness to drop his country’s bid to join NATO in exchange for Western
security guarantees, but rejected the U.S. push for ceding territory to
Russia as he held talks with U.S. envoys on ending the war.
Zelenskyy sat down with U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy
Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The Ukrainian leader
posted pictures of the negotiating table with German Chancellor
Friedrich Merz sitting next to him facing the U.S. delegation.
Responding to journalists’ questions in audio clips on a WhatsApp group
chat before the talks, Zelenskyy said that since the U.S. and some
European nations had rejected Ukraine’s push to join NATO, Kyiv expects
the West to offer a set of guarantees similar to those offered to the
alliance members.
“These security guarantees are an opportunity to prevent another wave of
Russian aggression,” he said. “And this is already a compromise on our
part.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has cast Ukraine's bid to join NATO as
a major threat to Moscow's security and a reason for launching the
full-scale invasion in February 2022. The Kremlin has demanded that
Ukraine renounce the bid for the alliance membership as part of any
prospective peace settlement.
Zelenskyy emphasized that any security assurances would need to be
legally binding and supported by the U.S. Congress, adding that he
expected an update from his team following a meeting between Ukrainian
and U.S. military officials in Stuttgart, Germany.
The U.S. government said in a social media post on Witkoff’s account
after the five-hour meeting that “a lot of progress was made.”
Washington has tried for months to navigate the demands of each side as
Trump presses for a swift end to Russia’s war and grows increasingly
exasperated by delays. The search for possible compromises has run into
major obstacles, including control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region,
which is mostly occupied by Russian forces.
Tough obstacles remain
Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the part of the Donetsk
region still under its control among the key conditions for peace, a
demand rejected by Kyiv.
Zelenskyy said that the U.S. had floated an idea for Ukraine to withdraw
from the Donetsk and create a demilitarized free economic zone there, a
proposal he rejected as unworkable.
“I do not consider this fair, because who will manage this economic
zone?” he said. “If we are talking about some buffer zone along the line
of contact, if we are talking about some economic zone and we believe
that only a police mission should be there and troops should withdraw,
then the question is very simple. If Ukrainian troops withdraw 5–10
kilometers, for example, then why do Russian troops not withdraw deeper
into the occupied territories by the same distance?”
Zelenskyy described the issue as “very sensitive” and insisted on a
freeze along the line of contact, saying that “today a fair possible
option is we stand where we stand.”
Putin's foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov told the business daily
Kommersant that Russian police and national guard would stay in parts of
the Donetsk region even if they become a demilitarized zone under a
prospective peace plan.
Ushakov warned that a search for compromise could take a long time,
noting that the U.S. proposals that took into account Russian demands
had been “worsened” by alterations proposed by Ukraine and its European
allies.
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The chancellory is pictured during talks between representatives of
the U.S. and Ukraine in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP
Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Speaking to Russian state TV in remarks broadcast Sunday, Ushakov
said that “the contribution of Ukrainians and Europeans to these
documents is unlikely to be constructive," warning that Moscow will
“have very strong objections.”
Ushakov added that the territorial issue was actively discussed in
Moscow when Witkoff and Kushner met with Putin earlier this month.
“The Americans know and understand our position," he said.
Zelenskyy said he spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron on
Sunday just before the talks with Trump’s envoys, thanking him on X
for his support and adding that “we are coordinating closely and
working together for the sake of our shared security.”
Macron vowed on X that “France is, and will remain, at Ukraine’s
side to build a robust and lasting peace — one that can guarantee
Ukraine’s security and sovereignty, and that of Europe, over the
long term.”
Merz, who has spearheaded European efforts to support Ukraine
alongside Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, said Saturday
that “the decades of the ‘Pax Americana’ are largely over for us in
Europe and for us in Germany as well.”
He warned that Putin's aim is “a fundamental change to the borders
in Europe, the restoration of the old Soviet Union within its
borders.”
“If Ukraine falls, he won’t stop,” Merz warned on Saturday during a
party conference in Munich.
Putin has denied plans to restore the Soviet Union or attack any
European allies.
Russia and Ukraine exchange aerial attacks
Ukraine’s air force said that Russia overnight launched ballistic
missiles and 138 attack drones at Ukraine. The air force said 110
had been intercepted or downed, but missile and drone hits were
recorded at six locations.
Zelenskyy said Sunday that hundreds of thousands of families were
still without power in the south, east and northeast regions and
work was continuing to restore electricity, heat and water to
multiple regions following a large-scale attack the previous night.
The Ukrainian president said that in the past week, Russia had
launched over 1,500 strike drones, nearly 900 guided aerial bombs
and 46 missiles of various types at Ukraine.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 235
Ukrainian drones late Saturday and early Sunday.
In the Belgorod region, a drone injured a man and set his house
ablaze in the village of Yasnye Zori, regional Gov. Vyacheslav
Gladkov said.
Ukrainian drones struck an oil depot in Uryupinsk in the Volgograd
region, triggering a fire, according to regional Gov. Andrei
Bocharov.
In the Krasnodar region, the Ukrainian drones attacked the town of
Afipsky, where an oil refinery is located. Authorities said that
explosions shattered windows in residential buildings, but didn’t
report any damage to the refinery.
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Ciobanu reported from Warsaw, Poland.
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