The United States has made its offer of security guarantees for Ukraine conditional on Kyiv handing over all of Donbas to Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with Reuters published on March 25, 2026. With Washington’s attention now focused on its own war with Iran, Zelenskyy said President Donald Trump is putting pressure on Ukraine to end the fighting quickly.

“The Americans are prepared to finalize these guarantees at a high level once Ukraine is ready to withdraw from Donbas,” Zelenskyy said.

“More pressure on the Ukrainian side”

Zelenskyy said a withdrawal would force Ukraine to abandon strong, heavily fortified defensive positions, which could put both Ukraine and Europe at risk of future Russian aggression. “President Trump, unfortunately, in my opinion, still chooses a strategy to put more pressure on the Ukrainian side,” he said.

He added that a US-Ukraine document on security guarantees had been “100% ready” in January but needed further work after talks in Miami. “Russia is counting on the fact that the United States will not have the strength or patience to bring this to an end,” he said.

Washington denies the claim

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Fox News Digital that Zelenskyy’s account was false. The White House did not comment publicly.

Donbas at the center of the deadlock

Russia has made Ukraine’s withdrawal from Donbas a precondition for any peace deal, and Vladimir Putin has long described full control of the region as central to Moscow’s war aims. Kyiv has repeatedly rejected the demand, arguing that freezing the current front line is the most realistic basis for a ceasefire. US-brokered talks involving Russia and Ukraine took place earlier this year in Abu Dhabi and Geneva, but have since stalled.

Patriots and Gulf interest

Zelenskyy thanked the Trump administration for continuing deliveries of Patriot air defense missiles, saying “deliveries to us were not stopped,” but said supplies still fall short of Ukraine’s needs. He also said the US and several Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait, have approached Ukraine about help countering drone and missile threats, and that Ukraine’s defense industry is running at about half capacity. “Funding is the scarcest resource today,” he said.

Sources

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