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KYIV, Ukraine: The United States suggested for the first time that Ukraine cede land to Russia in exchange for joining NATO, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in comments released Saturday, adding that Russia had rejected an energy target ceasefire at talks this week.<\/strong><\/p>\n Zelensky said Russia was \u201cbetting everything\u201d on this winter\u2019s campaign in its war with Ukraine, while warning that the Kremlin\u2019s demands to redraw Europe\u2019s security architecture are \u201cdangerous\u201d and could lead to more wars.<\/p>\n Zelensky spoke to the media Friday after visits to Denmark and Ireland, where he met with European leaders following two days of US-brokered Ukraine-Russia talks in Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n The talks ended with no breakthrough in Europe\u2019s worst war since World War II, but all sides agreed that European officials should be included in future negotiations.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Americans raised a question: \u2018What if Ukraine joins NATO? Would Ukraine withdraw from Donbas?\u2019 This was the first time this had been raised,\u201d Zelensky said in the comments kept under embargo until Saturday.<\/p>\n He said Ukraine was discussing \u201cspecific security guarantees from NATO and the EU\u201d and that if Western countries confirmed them \u201cthen I will ask our Ukrainian society what it thinks: do we accept it or not? I have no right to make that decision on my own.\u201d<\/p>\n US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff attended the Abu Dhabi talks and then met with Putin and Zelensky separately.<\/p>\n Moscow turned down a proposal for a ceasefire in attacks on energy targets at the Abu Dhabi talks, Zelensky said.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the proposal for an energy ceasefire: the Russians don\u2019t want it,\u201d Zelensky said.<\/p>\n Putin\u2019s proposal for a \u201chumanitarian mission\u201d to Kostyantynivka, Zelensky said, was a ploy to get Kyiv to withdraw from the embattled city and open the road to more settlements in the Donetsk region.<\/p>\n Russia said this year that it had seized the town but Ukraine has said fighting is ongoing.<\/p>\n \u201cPutin simply wants us to leave Kostiantynivka so that they can move in and occupy the entire city that way,\u201d Zelensky said.<\/p>\n Moscow\u2019s troops have inched westwards since launching the invasion in February 2022, but have been unable to seize the whole of the Donetsk region.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n