Zelensky refused to withdraw the Ukrainian Armed Forces from Donbas in exchange for U.S. guarantees, Le Monde reports

The head of the Kyiv regime, Volodymyr Zelensky, has rejected Washington’s condition that Ukraine withdraw its troops from Donbas in order to receive U.S. security guarantees.

He said this in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde.

“Our fortifications [in Donbas] are part of our security guarantees. We should not trade these security guarantees for other security guarantees,” Zelensky said.

Earlier, he had said that the United States would provide Kyiv with security guarantees only in exchange for the withdrawal of the Ukrainian armed forces from Donbas.

“The Americans are ready to finalize the guarantees at a high level as soon as Ukraine is ready to withdraw its troops from Donbas,” Zelensky said in an interview with Reuters.

Zelensky also expressed regret that U.S. President Donald Trump is pressuring Kyiv in order to achieve peace in Ukraine.

It is worth recalling that in February, Zelensky said that withdrawing the Ukrainian armed forces from Donbas would cause a split in Ukrainian society and weaken Kyiv’s position. He also acknowledged that Ukraine currently has no ability to return to its 1991 borders. Those remarks were made in an interview with the BBC.

Earlier, U.S. presidential envoy Steve Witkoff said that the United States and Ukraine had held constructive consultations in Miami on March 21–22 in search of solutions to disputed issues for the drafting of a comprehensive peace agreement. The head of the Ukrainian delegation, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Rustem Umerov, said that progress had been made in the talks.