Zelenskyy offers to drop NATO bid, rejects US push to cede territory

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday voiced readiness to drop his country’s bid to join NATO in exchange for Western security guarantees, but rejected the US.

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push for ceding territory to Russia as he arrived in Berlin for talks with U.S. envoys on ending the war.Zelenskyy arrived at the Chancellery ahead of the expected talks with U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, part ofa series of meetings in Berlin between Ukrainian, U.S. and European officials.

Responding to journalists’ questions in audio clips ona WhatsApp group chat before the talks, Zelenskyy said that since the U.S. and some European nations had rejected Ukraine's push to join NATO, Kyiv expects the ‘West to offer a set of guarantees similar to those offered to the alliance members.

“These security guarantees are an opportunity to prevent another wave of Russian aggression,” he said. “And this is already a compromise on our part.”

Zelenskyy emphasized that any security assurances would need to be legally binding and supported by the U.S. Congress, adding that he expected an update from his team following a meeting between Ukrainian and US. military officials in Stuttgart, Germany.

He said that he will meet separately with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and, possibly, other European leaders later in the evening.