Zelensky in Dublin Rejects Trading Donbas for Security: Ceding Land Will Not Bring Peace
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected the idea of trading Donbas for security guarantees at a news conference in Dublin on November 11, saying that after the trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi, territory remained the issue dividing the sides most, and that ceding Ukrainian land would bring neither peace nor security.
Zelensky said US officials had asked whether Ukraine could exchange Donbas for security, offering an arrangement similar to NATO's rather than NATO membership itself, and that he had pressed them on what that security would actually mean. Nobody trusts Putin to stop if Ukrainian forces leave Donbas, he said: Putin would pause, then come back in one year, two years or five years.
US envoy Jared Kushner said after the talks that there was no trust between the sides and that territorial questions would be the hardest to resolve. Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said there was good momentum toward a solution before the new year, and Zelensky said Ukraine would do everything to seek results by the end of the year.
Russia's chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky rejected any territorial swaps the same day, saying Russia's buffer zone along its border with Ukraine was already substantial and would keep expanding.
Related: Follow-up: Abu Dhabi talks end second day without ceasefire as Lavrov rejects European framework
(Source: Office of the President of Ukraine)
Source: Office of the President of Ukraine
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：乌克兰总统泽连斯基（资料图）。照片：乌克兰总统府，CC0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (file photo). Photo by the Office of the President of Ukraine, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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