The United States has suggested creating a “free economic zone” in parts of the eastern Donbas region from which Ukraine would withdraw under a negotiated peace with Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday.
In wide-ranging comments to reporters, Zelensky said that Kyiv has presented the US with an updated version of a peace plan — “not a single document, but a set of documents,” many of which need to be finalized. He said the Trump administration wants a “full understanding” of the status of the plan by Christmas.
Questions of territory remain unresolved, the Ukrainian leader said. “The Russians want the whole of the Donbas — but we, of course, do not accept this,” he explained. Russia has been fighting in the Donbas region, which spans the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, since 2014. Moscow is now trying to secure through US-mediated peace negotiations what it has been unable to win through force of arms.
“Our position is that it is fair to stand where we stand — that is, on the contact line,” Zelensky said. “Therefore, there is a discussion between these different positions, and it has not yet been decided.”
As a compromise, Zelensky said the US has discussed creating a “free economic zone” in the parts of the Donbas from which Ukrainian troops would withdraw. The Russians refer to the territory under discussion as a “demilitarized” zone, he added.
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