Zelenskyy says US seeking ‘free economic zone’ in eastern Ukraine

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that the United States is pushing for Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the Donetsk region to establish a “free economic zone” in the Kyiv-held parts of eastern Ukraine that Moscow wants to control.

Zelenskyy confirmed on Thursday that his country had presented the US with a 20-point set of counter-proposals for peace amid discussions on security guarantees with top US officials, making it clear that any territorial concessions would have to be put to a referendum in Ukraine.

“They see it as Ukrainian troops withdrawing from the Donetsk region, and the compromise is supposedly that Russian troops will not enter this part of … region. They do not know who will govern this territory,” said the Ukrainian president.

He said that Russia had referred to the proposed buffer area as a “demilitarised zone” and that the US team was describing it as an “economic free zone”.

“I believe that the people of Ukraine will answer this question. Whether through elections or a referendum, there must be a position from the people of Ukraine,” he said.

Zelenskyy is under mounting US pressure to secure a deal with Russia, with reports that US President Donald Trump wants an agreement by Christmas. The general peace plan includes the 20-point framework and separate documents on security guarantees and on rebuilding Ukraine.

The full details of the framework, which revises a US draft seen as heavily weighted in Russia’s favour, have not been released. Zelenskyy said the main issues of contention were control of the Donetsk region in the Donbas, and future governance of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is currently under Russian control.

Zelenskyy pushed back against the idea of a unilateral withdrawal of troops from the Donetsk, where Ukraine controls one-fifth of the territory. “Why doesn’t the other side of the war pull back the same distance in the other direction?” he said, adding there were “a great many questions” still unresolved.

After talks on Thursday with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and special envoy Steve Witkoff, the Ukrainian president said that security guarantees were “among the most critical elements for all subsequent steps.

The document on security guarantees would, he said, have to provide “concrete answers” on actions that would be taken if “Russia decides to launch its aggression again”.

Today, we have had a constructive and in-depth discussion with the American team on one of the three documents we are currently working on – the one on security guarantees. The U.S. was represented by Secretary Marco Rubio @SecRubio, Secretary Pete Hegseth @SecWar, @SteveWitkoff,… pic.twitter.com/gztUJHBOqn

‘Conflict is at our door’

On Thursday, NATO chief Mark Rutte warned that Russia could be ready to use military force against the alliance within five years, urging members to “rapidly increase defence spending and production”.

“Conflict is at our door,” he said in a speech in Berlin. “We are Russia’s next target. I fear that too many are quietly complacent. Too many don’t feel the urgency. And too many believe that time is on our side. It is not. The time for action is now.”

In other developments, Ukraine’s allies in the so-called Coalition of the Willing discussed progress on mobilising frozen Russian sovereign assets during a virtual meeting on Thursday, according to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office.

The European Commission is pushing to tap some 200 billion euros ($232bn) of Russian central bank assets immobilised in the bloc after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine to provide Kyiv with much-needed funding.

The sanctions freezing the Russian funds currently require unanimous renewal twice a year, leaving them vulnerable to a veto from Hungary, the EU country closest to Russia.

But a majority of ambassadors from the European Union’s 27 nations agreed on Thursday on a way of keeping Russian funds frozen as long as required without the need for renewal every six months.

The idea, which still needs formal approval by the finance ministers meeting on Friday, is not a done deal. Belgium, which, as the home of Euroclear – the organisation holding most of the funds, fears legal or financial retribution from Moscow.

Trump has largely sought to sideline European nations from the peace process, preferring to deal directly with Moscow and Kyiv in shuttle diplomacy led by special envoy Witkoff and, lately, his son-in-law Jared Kushner.

On Thursday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who met Rutte in Berlin, said further talks with the Americans were planned this weekend, and an international meeting on Ukraine could happen at the start of next week.

Reporting from Kyiv, Al Jazeera’s Audrey MacAlpine said Merz and Rutte “agreed that Ukraine was closer to a ceasefire than has ever been”.

“They also agreed that any territorial concessions to be made by Ukraine must be approved by Kyiv, and that in any peace negotiations moving forward, that European leaders must be involved,” she said.

The White House said Trump would send a representative to talks in Europe this weekend if there was a real chance of signing a peace agreement.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the US president was “extremely frustrated with both sides” and “sick of meetings just for the sake of meeting”.

Russia claims to hold ‘strategic initiative’

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who wants to portray himself as negotiating from a position of strength, claimed on Thursday in a call with military leaders that Russian armed forces were “fully holding the strategic initiative” on the battlefield.

In 2022, Russia claimed to formally annex the Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia regions, despite not having full control over them. Putin has said that Moscow is ready to fight on to seize the land it claims if Kyiv does not give it up.

Lieutenant General Sergei Medvedev told Putin on Thursday that troops had taken the city of Siversk in the Donetsk region, where fighting has been fierce in recent months.

The claim was denied by the Ukrainian military’s Operation Task Force East unit, which said Russia was “trying to infiltrate Siversk in small groups, taking advantage of unfavourable weather conditions, but most of these units are being destroyed on the approaches”.

The task force also said Ukrainian forces were holding the northern districts of Pokrovsk, a key former logistics hub in Donetsk that Russian commanders said came under Moscow’s control last month.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian long-range drones hit a Russian oil rig in the Caspian Sea belonging to Russian oil company Lukoil, according to a report by The Associated Press, citing an anonymous official in the Security Service of Ukraine.

The rig reportedly took four hits, halting the extraction of oil and gas from more than 20 wells, according to the official. Russian officials and Lukoil made no immediate comment.

Ukraine also launched one of its biggest drone attacks of the war overnight, halting flights in and out of all four Moscow airports for seven hours.

Zelenskyy told the Coalition of the Willing meeting that a ceasefire was needed for elections to be held in Ukraine. The leader, whose term expired last year, is facing renewed pressure from Trump to hold a vote.

Source: Aljazeera