If Russia agrees to keep its troops out of this eastern region of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, says Kyiv is willing to convert the Donbass region into a demilitarized zone (DMZ).
Zelenskyy’s comments represent Ukraine’s biggest territorial concession so far as he faces mounting pressure from both Russian military advances and United States President Donald Trump to agree to a ceasefire with Moscow.
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The Ukrainian president also spoke of a second DMZ near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest, which is currently controlled by Russia. Zelenskyy claimed on Tuesday that the US supported the DMZ proposals, which were included in a 20-point peace plan aimed at ending the Ukrainian conflict.
What are our current knowledge of the plan and whether demilitarized zones could be effective in Ukraine:
What is the 20-point peace plan?
Zelenskyy read aloud from a copy with highlighted and annotated text during a two-hour briefing with journalists. Over the weekend, Washington and Kyiv in Florida worked together to come up with the plan.
Here’s where negotiations stand on key issues:
- Russia’s commitment to NATO membership: Ukraine has been adamant since the start of the conflict. Ukraine must give up its chances of joining the military alliance, according to the Trump administration. But Ukraine continues to resist pressure to introduce constitutional amendments explicitly stating that it will stay neutral and not seek NATO membership. On Tuesday, Zelenskyy said, “Otto members have the option of having Ukraine.” “We’ve made a decision,” the statement read. We moved away from the proposed changes to the Constitution of Ukraine that would have prohibited Ukraine from joining NATO”.
- Any proposal for requiring Ukraine to withdraw its troops would have to be approved through a national referendum, according to Zelenskyy. The country’s constitution, which forbids the government from altering its borders on its own, has been repeatedly referenced in Ukraine. But many analysts believe that Ukraine might need to settle for a middle path – not recognising Russian-occupied regions officially while acknowledging that it does not actually control them.
- Elections: Zelenskyy claimed that Ukraine would only hold presidential elections after the signing of a peace treaty. While Russia has used Zelenskyy’s legitimacy in the absence of elections during the war, US President Donald Trump has been urging Ukrainian elections.
- Demilitarised zones: Zelenskyy said any areas that Ukraine pulls out from will become DMZs, which he also called free trade zones. According to US negotiators, “They are looking for a demilitarized zone or a free economic zone,” he said on Tuesday.
What DMZs in Ukraine are being proposed?
Russia has demanded full control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which constitute the Donbas, historically Ukraine’s industrial belt.
Nearly all of Luhansk and 70% of Donetsk are currently under its control.
As long as Russia doesn’t attempt to occupy the area, the most recent proposal would see Ukrainian soldiers leave the area under their control. Instead, that region is to become a DMZ.
Russian troops are in charge of a nuclear plant in Zaporizhzhia, where Ukraine has tried to retake it in vain.
The most recent proposal suggests also creating a DMZ in the area around the nuclear plant.
But it is unclear how the proposed DMZs – if both sides were to agree to them – would be governed, who might ensure that both sides play by the rules and how resources there, such as the nuclear plant, could be shared.
According to King’s College London analyst Marina Miron, “there is a point in the plan that is supposed to satisfy both sides.”
“I don’t see how this is going to work because Zelenskyy said in Ukraine that Russia would need to leave its forces, and we are talking about the Donbass, especially if Russia is winning on the battlefield,” Zelenskyy said.
Miron explained that Ukraine designating demilitarised zones in this peace plan was a tactic by Kyiv to signal that it was ready for peace, thereby pushing “the diplomatic burden on Russia”.
Russia has it responded?
The most recent peace plan has not been accepted or rejected by Moscow.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that Russia was “formulating its position” on the plan. He made no comments on the plan’s specifics.
What other demilitarized areas exist globally?
Several DMZs exist. Among them are:
Korean Demilitarized Zone
The Korean DMZ is a 4km-wide (2.5-mile-wide) buffer zone separating North Korea and South Korea.
Following the conclusion of the Korean War, it was established in 1953.
When North Korean forces crossed the 38th parallel in June 1950 to invade South Korea in an effort to reunify the peninsula, a war broke out.
Korea was temporarily divided at the 38th parallel by the US and the Soviet Union after World War II. In the North, the Soviet-backed Workers’ Party of Korea, led by Kim Il Sung, and the South, led by the US-supported Syngman Rhee government.
North Korean troops supported by the Soviets and China engaged in three-year combat with US-led UN forces. It killed an estimated two million people and devastated cities and villages on both sides.
No formal peace agreement was ever reached, and the US, China, and North Korea all agreed to sign an armistice, but South Korea refused to do so. Technically speaking, the two Koreas are still at war more than 70 years later.
UN Disengagement Observer Force Zone in the Golan Heights
Following the Israeli-Syrian conflict in the same year and an armistice signed by the two nations, the UN established a constrained area of land known as a DMZ in the Golan Heights in 1974.
A rocky region of land that is deemed to be Syria’s property under international law is the wider Golan Heights. Israel captured it during the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed it in 1982 in a move recognised only by the US.
The remaining Golan Heights that is still under Syria’s control is divided into the Observer Force Zone. UN peacekeepers continue to monitor the area.
Sinai Peninsula demilitarised zones
As part of the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, DMZs were established in the Sinai Peninsula. The Sinai Peninsula was divided into four different security zones, each with its own unique military restraints, according to the treaty.
These zones are monitored by an international peacekeeping force called the Multinational Force and Observers.
Aland Islands
Between Sweden and Finland, the Aland Islands are a small archipelago in the Baltic Sea. They are an autonomous, Swedish-speaking region of Finland.
According to a decision made by the now-disappearing League of Nations, they have been demilitarized since 1921. Because the islands were a part of Finland when it gained independence from the Russian Empire in 1917, Finland and Sweden brought the matter before the league.
After this, many Alanders wanted to reunite with Sweden, which spurred tensions.
Antarctica
Under the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, Antarctica was established as a demilitarized zone.
This forbids nuclear testing and military activity, making sure that only peaceful and scientific research can be conducted on the continent.
This is because several nations had made overlapping territorial claims in Antarctica, raising fears of future conflicts.
Temple Preah Vihear
The boundaries and overlapping claims form the Thailand-Cambodia border, which was formed by French colonial delineation.
These disputes have grown more contentious as both countries strengthened their institutions and the strategic value of certain areas increased.
One of the contested zones is the culturally significant Temple Preah Vihear from the Khmer Empire, which is symbolically important to both nations. In 1962, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that the temple belonged to Cambodia.
Disputes erupted from 2008 to 2011, marked by exchanges of artillery fire, mass displacements and duelling legal interpretations of the ICJ ruling.
A temporary demilitarized zone around the temple was ordered by the ICJ in 2011.
Do DMZs have previous jobs?
DMZs have been considerably successful in some cases, such as in the case of the Koreas.
North and South Korea’s military conflict has been avoided by the two due to their geographic location.
On the other hand, a border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia this year has caused nearly 100 people to die and a million people to bedisplaced, according to official counts. The two countries reported new clashes on Wednesday.
Demilitarized areas have prevented direct, extensive clashes in other situations, like in the Golan Heights or Sinai Peninsula.
