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”.