‘We Do Not Want to Give up Our Donbas’ – Zelensky Holds Firm in Negotiations

After speaking with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin on Monday and on the phone with US President Donald Trump soon thereafter, President Volodymyr Zelensky made it clear in a press conference with Ukrainian journalists over WhatsApp that Ukraine has no intention of ceding territory in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

“Donbas is an important issue for me. First, since I have already started talking about the east of our country, let’s continue,” he said in his Whats App chat on Monday night, Kyiv time. “As for the position of the Russians, so far it has not changed. They know that they want our Donbas. Our position is practical, realistic, and fair; we stand by it, and we do not want to give up our Donbas.

“The Americans want to find a compromise. They are proposing a free economic zone,” he continued. “I want to emphasize once again: a free economic zone does not mean under the control of the Russian Federation. These are important features for me of any format regarding Donbas. Neither de jure nor de facto will we recognize Donbas as Russian.”

Responding to Kyiv Post’s questions on WhatsApp about the durability of security guarantees now that Ukraine is no longer being considered for NATO membership, Zelensky said, “Because we are talking about security guarantees, that must be approved by the US Congress. I see that President Trump’s team is ready for this.

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“We know for sure that Congress will support it, he said, adding, “Not absolutely for sure, but we know that the majority of Congress views this positively.

Speaking to reporters previously about a ceasefire in Ukraine, Merz noted, “I think it’s the first time since the 24th of February, 2022 (that) we see a real opportunity to pave the way towards peace.”

Elaborating on this, Zelensky added in the WhatsApp call that he interpreted any such security guarantees as similar to NATO membership in that an attack on Ukraine would be viewed as an attack on the Alliance as a whole.

“It is important that this is a legally binding responsibility of our partners in the event of a violation of a peace agreement or a ceasefire by the aggressor, by the Russian Federation. That is, there will be a response similar to what exists under Article Five of NATO,” he said. “In addition, I already answered a question about this today. There we are also talking about a deterrence package—what weapons we need, what force we need, what training we need, what manning of our forces we need, how many of our soldiers we need, what funding our army needs so that the resilience of the Ukrainian soldier is ensured.”

Zelensky also clarified his position on how quickly he thought a peace deal would be achieved. For him, he said, it was not just about speed, but mostly about justice.

“The Americans want a quick conclusion,” he said. “For us, the quality of that speed is important. If speed and quality coincide, we are fully in favor.”

The Ukrainian president, who has been accused by the Russians as refusing to hold elections during war time, had this to say about the next electoral cycle in Kyiv:

“I am ready for elections. If we reach certain sensitive issues and decide elections are needed, if there is a ceasefire, there will be elections.”

Finally, he addressed the issue of funding for reconstruction.

“When we talk about recovery, we are already talking about money, about creating a special fund, and about what we are counting on. Today, for the first time, I raised an issue that, in my view, is very important. This concerns our displaced persons who lost their housing.

“These are large sums of money. Tens of billions of dollars. I think we will calculate somewhere around 70 to 80 billion [dollars]. And we raised this issue. It is important that the Americans perceive this. Appropriate compensation is needed so that Ukrainians want to live in Ukraine and have these opportunities.”

“I am very glad that we managed to unite the United States and Europe while working on these documents,” he concluded. “We will look at the result, but such a step has been made. And all together already with the Europeans.

“Today we spoke with the President of the United States, with President Trump. We spoke with him personally about all these steps. I think that when we finalize the documents or get closer to the final version of the documents, we will meet with him.”