Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday said his country is willing to drop its push to join NATO if it gets other security guarantees to end the war, marking a critical concession to the Russians.
The Ukrainian leader — speaking to reporters ahead of further discussions with US envoys in Berlin later Sunday and Monday — said, “From the very beginning, Ukraine’s desire was to join NATO, these are real security guarantees.
“Some partners from the US and Europe did not support this direction.”
“Bilateral security guarantees between Ukraine and the US, Article 5-like guarantees for us from the US, and security guarantees from European colleagues as well as other countries — Canada, Japan — are an opportunity to prevent another Russian invasion,” he said when talking about alternatives.
“And it is already a compromise from our part,” he said.
But Ukraine’s leader griped that overall, the negotiations aimed at ending Kremlin’s deadly aggression aren’t about giving his people a “fair” deal.
“The conversations taking place right now are not about a fair deal — they’re about power,” Zelensky said during a WhatsApp press conference, according to a translation by journalist Kateryna Lisunova.
“If these were truly fair negotiations, the focus would be on punishing Moscow for its war crimes,” he said.
The Ukrainian leader said a cease-fire will be a central part of the upcoming talks.
Zelensky has been careful about publicly casting aspersions on the negotiations over concern about alienating President Trump, who has been dead-set on brokering an end to the brutal war.
Trump took several swipes at Zelensky last week, alleging that his Ukrainian counterpart hadn’t read the latest terms of a proposed peace plan and calling for new elections in Ukraine, despite the logistical and constitutional challenges.
Zelensky is set to participate in talks with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, among other US emissaries, as well as European officials.
“The Berlin summit is important. We’re meeting with Americans and Europeans,” Zelensky said. “This alliance format matters to us, and believe me, we’ve done a lot to bring all these parties together.
“Unfortunately, this moment demands respect for strength, not values,” he said. “If we were talking about honesty, values, and international law, Russia should have been condemned ten years ago for invading Ukraine’s sovereign territory. That didn’t happen — there were only words.”
Last month, Ukrainians fretted over a Russia-friendly 28-point US-pushed peace plan that included provisions such as Ukraine committing to never joining NATO, reducing its military force and ceding the entirety of the Donbas region, which the Russians have been unable to fully conquer.
Later, negotiators drafted a 19-point plan that was friendlier to the Ukrainians but had sticking points that the Russians promptly rejected.
The main issue appears to be territorial concessions. The Russians want the roughly 14% of the Donbas region still controlled by Ukraine.
Zelensky has argued that he doesn’t have the power to agree to that without a vote from his people, though he has expressed some openness to making it a demilitarized zone.
Some experts are concerned that if Russia were to take the rest of the Donbas, it would have an easier time cutting deeper into Ukraine in the future.
