Zelenskyy Floats NATO Referendum as Europe Rejects Russia's Security Terms

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said American peace envoys asked him whether Ukraine would pull out of the eastern region of Donbas in exchange for NATO membership, DW reported on Saturday. He said Kyiv will not cede territory, but would put a broader peace package to a national referendum. Meanwhile, European leaders and Ukrainian officials are rejecting demands that Russia reportedly presented at talks in the United Arab Emirates.

The exchanges follow this week's talks in Abu Dhabi, the first trilateral meeting between Kyiv and Moscow, mediated by Washington, since February, according to LIGA.net. Participants agreed on a large-scale prisoner exchange, the outlet said, while the larger questions of European security remain unresolved.

What Zelenskyy said about NATO and a referendum

According to DW, the Ukrainian leader said the idea of trading a Donbas withdrawal for NATO membership had not been raised before. He repeated that Ukraine is unwilling to give up land to Russia. But he said that if a comprehensive deal included security guarantees, a strong and well-funded army and money for reconstruction, he would let the public decide in a referendum.

He said NATO is back on the agenda, while acknowledging that Russian President Vladimir Putin's signals make the conversation extremely difficult. Zelenskyy also warned that Moscow's plan to change the continent's security arrangements could lead to escalation, and said real security in Europe means the EU and NATO.

What Russia is reportedly demanding

The Telegraph, as relayed by Euromaidan Press, reported on a Russian document dated Nov. 10 that sets out Putin's position for talks mediated by US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff. According to that report, it calls for NATO to withdraw from Eastern Europe and the Baltic states, expel Finland and pledge no troops for Ukraine before Putin would consider a ceasefire. It also seeks an end to all Western arms for Ukraine, a block on Ukrainian NATO membership and a pullback of alliance forces to their 1997 borders.

The reported paper also asks Britain to stop extending its submarine-based nuclear deterrent to the wider defense of NATO. In return, Euromaidan Press said, Russia would keep the Ukrainian territory it occupies, and could allow Kyiv to join the EU if Ukraine stayed out of the bloc's common defense and agreed to remove nuclear weapons from Belarus. LIGA.net, citing The New York Times, said the Russian side also proposed basing Europe's future system on Cold War spheres of influence. These accounts come from media reports of the document, not from a published text.

How Europe and Ukraine are responding

After meeting European leaders in Dublin, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said the demands are not up for negotiation and that it is for Europe and Europe alone to decide its arrangements, according to Euromaidan Press.

Finnish Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen said membership matters are not open to negotiation, calling the suggestion outrageous. Finland dropped decades of neutrality to join NATO after Russia's invasion.

Ukraine's foreign minister said on X that Russia is in no position to demand changes to European security, according to LIGA.net. He argued that Europe already has a security order that Russia keeps violating, and that the best path to safety is ending Russian aggression. He also claimed that Russian losses have reached 1.6 million killed or wounded. That figure is Kyiv's claim and was not independently confirmed in the reports.

Who will be at the table

Reports differ on the exact European lineup. DW said the EU announced on Friday that diplomats from Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Poland would take part in future peace talks. Euromaidan Press said EU leaders agreed on Nov. 13 that the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Poland would represent Europe. It also said Putin is believed to have agreed to let them join. Moscow had long insisted that European states be kept out because they back Ukraine.

What's at stake

The disagreement goes beyond a ceasefire line. Kyiv and its European partners are seeking guarantees that keep Ukraine's army strong and leave Europe's alliances intact, while Moscow's reported terms would redraw NATO's footprint and limit Western support for Ukraine. For civilians in Ukraine, the war goes on in the meantime. DW reported that Russian missile and drone strikes on power stations have cut electricity and heating for millions of people as temperatures fall. Russia's Defense Ministry said, according to Interfax, that its forces captured the settlement of Tersianka in the Zaporizhzhia region and hit energy and transport sites.

Zelenskyy said Putin is betting everything on this winter's campaign, which Kyiv says is aimed at undermining public morale.

What happens next

No new round of talks has been announced in the reports. The next stage will test whether Moscow accepts a European presence at the table and whether any referendum proposal moves beyond Zelenskyy's conditions of security guarantees, a strong army and reconstruction funds.

Earlier on Around Prague: Moscow demands NATO pullback to 1997 borders at Abu Dhabi talks

Around Prague, based on reporting by DW.com, LIGA.net, Euromaidan Press

Cover photo: Christophe Licoppe / European Union, 2025 / EC - Audiovisual / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0, cropped

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