According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the United States is offering security guarantees for Ukraine on the condition that Kiev cedes its entire eastern Donbass region to Russia.
The Ukrainian leader’s comments come as a delegation of Russian lawmakers is headed to Washington for meetings with their US counterparts.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “We hope that these first, cautious steps will contribute to the continued revival of our bilateral relations.” He said Russian President Vladimir Putin has set “the most important goals” for the visit and will be “widely informed.”
The Duma delegation’s visit comes as talks aimed at ending Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, now in their fifth year, appear to have stalled despite three rounds of talks between US, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in Abu Dhabi and Geneva this year.
Zelensky: America is providing security guarantees for the return of Donbass
The main sticking point is Moscow’s insistence that Kiev completely hand over its industrial eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, which have been largely – but far from completely – captured by Russian forces.
On the other hand, Kiev is committed to receiving solid security guarantees from its Western allies, both financial and military, to prevent any recurrence of Russian aggression in the future.
“The Americans are ready to finalize these guarantees at a high level once Ukraine is ready to withdraw from Donbass,” Zelensky told Reuters news agency on Wednesday.
“This is clearly a wrong approach,” he said on the sidelines of a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in France on Thursday. “Of course, this is the Russian trick in negotiations: demanding something that was never theirs. This is a trap we should not fall into.”
What is Donbass and why is it important?
About 6,000 square kilometers (3,700 sq mi) of Donbass, mainly in Donetsk, is firmly under Ukrainian control, including a core of heavily fortified cities including Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Kostyanivka and Pokrovsk.
Putin insists that control of the entire Donbass, as well as the partially occupied Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhia, an area he calls “Novorossiya” or “New Russia”, is an essential Russian war objective and a prerequisite for a ceasefire.
If Ukraine refuses to cede the territories, Putin has threatened to take them by force – an undertaking that “will likely take several years” to complete at Russia’s current rate of progress, according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
“I would like the American side to understand that the eastern part of our country is part of our security guarantees,” Zelensky told Reuters. He said the war being waged by the United States and Israel against Iran is changing the outlook of US President Donald Trump.
How is Iran affecting Ukraine?
Zelensky said, “The Middle East will certainly have an impact on President Trump and his next steps.” “Unfortunately, in my opinion, President Trump is still choosing the strategy of putting more pressure on the Ukrainian side.”
Zelensky’s suggestion that Washington offer security guarantees in exchange for the Donbass handover has been well received in Moscow, with Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev telling Reuters the development “can’t help but please us.”
The conflict in the Middle East is also affecting Ukraine in other ways, with Zelensky claiming that Russia has tried to blackmail the United States by offering to stop sharing military intelligence with Iran if, in return, Washington cuts Ukraine off from its intelligence data.
Zelensky said, “I have reports from our intelligence services that show Russia is saying: ‘If the United States stops providing intelligence to Ukraine we will not provide intelligence.’ “Isn’t this blackmail? Of course.”
Russia has denied aiding Iran, but Zelensky claimed that some Iranian drones used to attack US and allied military assets in the Middle East contained Russian components.
On the other hand, Ukraine is also able to benefit from the Iran war by offering its hard-earned expertise in drone warfare to Gulf countries coming under attack from Iranian “martyr” drones, which Russia has deployed extensively in Ukraine over the past four years.
Are US weapons destined for Ukraine being diverted to the Gulf?
also on thursday Washington Post The Pentagon is considering sending munitions originally destined for Ukraine to the Gulf as the war against Iran puts pressure on US military supplies, the report said.
A Pentagon spokesman told the US newspaper that the Defense Department “will ensure that the US military and our allies and partners have what they need to fight and win.”
Weapons that could reportedly be redirected include major air defense interceptor missiles – including Patriot missiles, which are the only weapons capable of shooting down Russian ballistic missiles.
According to Zelensky, the US produces 60 to 65 missiles per month, or about 700 to 800 missiles per year. “And 803 missiles were used in the Middle East war on the first day.”
However, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that supplies of US equipment to Ukraine were continuing and Zelensky also thanked the Trump administration for maintaining supplies so far.
“We were not stopped from delivering,” he said in his interview with Reuters. “But this supply of Patriot missiles is not as large as we need.”
Russia and Ukraine exchange drone strikes
Indeed, Russian attacks continued early Thursday, hitting four energy facilities in Ukraine’s southern Odessa region and knocking out power to thousands of residents.
“The damage is extensive, it will take time,” energy company DTEK said on the Telegram messaging app. He said electricity has been restored to 31,500 families in the area, but 33,400 families are still without electricity.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian drones reportedly attacked the Kirishi oil refinery in Russia’s northwestern Leningrad region. Regional governor Alexander Drozdenko confirmed the attack, saying more than 20 drones were shot down but acknowledged, “There has been damage in the industrial zone.”
The Kirishinefteorgsintez oil refinery, one of the country’s largest refineries, stopped processing on Thursday, two industry sources said. reutersIt is estimated that about 40% of Russia’s crude oil export capacity has already been closed as a result of drone strikes, the seizure of shadow fleet tankers and the closure of the Druzhba pipeline on the territory of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, in Donbass, Russian troops are reportedly preparing for a new spring offensive against the Donetsk fortress belt, with fierce fighting taking place along some 1,250 kilometers (750 miles) of front line, according to Ukrainian commander-in-chief General Oleksandr Syrsky.
“In the past weeks, the Russians have stepped up pressure on the battlefield and in the air,” Alina Beketova of the Washington-based Center for European Policy Analysis told The Associated Press..
Robert Muret, a retired vice admiral in the U.S. Navy and deputy director of Syracuse University’s Institute for Security Policy and Law, said Russia is experimenting with “new approaches” at the “strategic level,” including incorporating mechanized infantry and armor into its offensive.
Edited by: Shawn Sinico