Washington is urging Kiev to withdraw from Donbass in exchange for a peace deal, the paper claims
Ukrainian soldiers train in Kharkov Region, Ukraine, December 27, 2025. © Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu via Getty Images
[RT} US
negotiators have pressed Kiev to fully withdraw from the part of
Russia’s Donbass it still controls as a condition for any future
security guarantees, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing
sources.
Eight people familiar with the matter told the paper that
the administration of US President Donald Trump insists that American
security guarantees would depend on whether Kiev agrees to a peace deal,
likely requiring it to pull back from the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s
Republics. The two regions overwhelmingly voted to join Russia in 2022,
and Moscow has said that Ukraine’s withdrawal from there is a key
prerequisite for sustainable peace.
The paper also said that in
order to sweeten the deal, Washington signaled that it could give
Ukraine more weapons in peacetime if it accepts the terms. However,
another FT source said that the US was “not trying to force any territorial concessions upon Ukraine,” adding that security guarantees included in the peace deal would depend on both sides.
Deputy White House Press Secretary Anna Kelly has dismissed the report as “false,” adding that Washington’s only rle in the peacemaking process is “to bring both sides together to make a deal.”
Meanwhile,
a senior Ukrainian official told the FT that Kiev is getting
increasingly uncertain about whether Washington will commit to security
guarantees, lamenting that America “stops each time the security guarantees can be signed.” This comes despite Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky saying on Sunday that the security guarantee framework is “100% ready” and is only waiting to be signed.
Last
week, the Financial Times also reported that while Zelensky had hoped
to ink the document during a meeting with Trump on the sidelines of the
World Economic Forum in Davos, he ultimately left the talks without a
deal.
The report comes after Russia, the US, and Ukraine held
their first trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi, which reportedly revolved
around the territorial dispute and steps required for de-escalation.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the negotiations were “constructive,” but dialed down hopes for a quick breakthrough, considering how “very complex” the issues under discussion are. Kiev, meanwhile, has consistently rejected any territorial concessions.
A New York Times report
claimed that the US and Ukraine have discussed several options for
ending the Ukraine conflict, including the creation of a demilitarized
zone or the deployment of neutral peacekeepers in the Kiev-controlled
part of Donbass.