Zelenskyy offers to drop NATO bid for security guarantees but rejects US push to cede territory

BERLIN (AP) — 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 U.S. push for ceding territory to Russia as he held talks with U.S. envoys on ending the war.

Zelenskyy sat down with U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The Ukrainian leader posted pictures of the negotiating table with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz sitting next to him facing the U.S. delegation.

Responding to journalists’ questions in audio clips on a 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.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has cast Ukraine's bid to join NATO as a major threat to Moscow's security and a reason for launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022. The Kremlin has demanded tha Ukraine renounce the bid for the alliance membership as part of any prospective peace settlement.

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 U.S. military officials in Stuttgart, Germany.

Washington has tried for months to navigate the demands of each side as Trump presses for a swift end to Russia’s war and grows increasingly exasperated by delays. The search for possible compromises has run into major obstacles, including control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which is mostly occupied by Russian forces.

Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the part of the Donetsk region still under its control among the key conditions for peace, a demand rejected by Kyiv.

Zelenskyy said that the U.S. had floated an idea for Ukraine to withdraw from the Donetsk and create a demilitarized free economic zone there, a proposal he rejected as unworkable.

“I do not consider this fair, because who will manage this economic zone?” he said. “If we are talking about some buffer zone along the line of contact, if we are talking about some economic zone and we believe that only a police mission should be there and troops should withdraw, then the question is very simple. If Ukrainian troops withdraw 5–10 kilometers, for example, then why do Russian troops not withdraw deeper into the occupied territories by the same distance?”

Zelenskyy described the issue as “very sensitive” and insisted on a freeze along the line of contact, saying that “today a fair possible option is we stand where we stand.”

Putin's foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov told the business daily Kommersant that Russian police and national guard would stay in parts of the Donetsk region even if they become a demilitarized zone under a prospective peace plan.

Ushakov warned that a search for compromise could take a long time, noting that the U.S. proposals that took into account Russian demands had been “worsened” by alterations proposed by Ukraine and its European allies.

Speaking to Russian state TV in remarks broadcast Sunday, Ushakov said that “the contribution of Ukrainians and Europeans to these documents is unlikely to be constructive," warning that Moscow will “have very strong objections.”

Ushakov added that the territorial issue was actively discussed in Moscow when Witkoff and Kushner met with Putin earlier this month. “The Americans know and understand our position," he said.

Merz, who has spearheaded European efforts to support Ukraine alongside French President Emmanuel Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, said Saturday that “the decades of the ‘Pax Americana’ are largely over for us in Europe and for us in Germany as well.”

He warned that Putin's aim is “a fundamental change to the borders in Europe, the restoration of the old Soviet Union within its borders.”

“If Ukraine falls, he won’t stop,” Merz warned on Saturday during a party conference in Munich.

Putin has denied plans to restore the Soviet Union or attack any European allies.

Ukraine’s air force said that Russia overnight launched ballistic missiles and 138 attack drones at Ukraine. The air force said 110 had been intercepted or downed, but missile and drone hits were recorded at six locations.

Zelenskyy said Sunday that hundreds of thousands of families were still without power in the south, east and northeast regions and work was continuing to restore electricity, heat and water to multiple regions following a large-scale attack the previous night.

The Ukrainian president said that in the past week, Russia had launched over 1,500 strike drones, nearly 900 guided aerial bombs and 46 missiles of various types at Ukraine.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 235 Ukrainian drones late Saturday and early Sunday.

In the Belgorod region, a drone injured a man and set his house ablaze in the village of Yasnye Zori, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

Ukrainian drones struck an oil depot in Uryupinsk in the Volgograd region, triggering a fire, according to regional Gov. Andrei Bocharov.

In the Krasnodar region, the Ukrainian drones attacked the town of Afipsky, where an oil refinery is located. Authorities said that explosions shattered windows in residential buildings, but didn’t report any damage to the refinery.

__

Ciobanu reported from Warsaw, Poland.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

The chancellory is pictured during talks between representatives of the U.S. and Ukraine in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Günter Sautter, left, foreign and security policy advisor to the Federal Chancellor, and former Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umjerow arrive for talks between representatives of the U.S. and Ukraine, at the Hotel Adlon, in Berlin, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)

Jared Kushner, entrepreneur and former chief advisor to President Donald Trump, arrives for talks between representatives of the U.S. and Ukraine at the Hotel Adlon, in Berlin, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)

Ukraine's Secretary of National Security Rustem Umerov, right, and Günter Sautter, Foreign and Security Policy Advisor to Chancellor Merz meet in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Steve Witkoff, special envoy of the United States, arrives for talks between representatives of the U.S. and Ukraine, at the Hotel Adlon, in Berlin, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)

In this grab from a video provided by the Press Service Of The President Of Ukraine on Friday, Dec 12, 2025, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy records a video at the road entering of Kupiansk, Ukraine. (Press Service Of The President Of Ukraine via AP)

BAGHDAD (AP) — The result of last month’s parliamentary elections in Iraq was ratified by the Supreme Federal Court on Sunday, confirming that the party of caretaker prime minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani won the largest number of seats — but not enough to assure him a second term.

The court confirmed that the voting process met all constitutional and legal requirements and had no irregularities affecting its validity.

The Independent High Electoral Commission submitted the final results of the legislative elections to the Supreme Federal Court on Monday for official certification after resolving 853 complaints submitted regarding the election results.

Al-Sudani's Reconstruction and Development Coalition won 46 seats in the 329-seat parliament. However, in past elections in Iraq, the bloc taking the largest number of seats has often been unable to impose its preferred candidate.

The coalition led by former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki won 29 seats, the Sadiqoun Bloc, which is led by the leader of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia, Qais al-Khazali, won 28 seats, and the Kurdistan Democratic Party, led by Masoud Barzani, one of the two main Kurdish parties in the country, won 27 seats.

The Taqaddum (Progress) party of ousted former Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi also won 27 seats, setting the stage for a contest over the speaker's role.

By convention, the prime minister of Iraq is always Shiite, the president a Kurd, and the parliament speaker Sunni.

Overall, Shiite alliances and lists secured 187 seats, Sunni groups 77 seats, Kurdish groups 56 seats, in addition to 9 seats reserved for members of minority groups.

Al-Sudani came to power in 2022 with the backing of the Coordination Framework, a coalition of Iran-backed Shiite parties, but it is not clear whether the coalition will align behind him a second time.

With no single bloc able to form a government alone, political leaders have launched negotiations to build a ruling coalition.

—-

Martany reported from Irbil, Iraq.

FILE - Voters gather to cast their vote at a ballot station in the country's parliamentary election in Najaf, Iraq, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil, File)

FILE - Iraqi voters gather to cast their vote at a ballot station in the country's parliamentary election in Najaf, Iraq, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil, File)

FILE - Election workers count ballots as they close a polling station, during the parliamentary elections in Baghdad, Iraq, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban, File)

FILE - Election workers gather parliamentary election ballots after the polls closed in Baghdad, Iraq, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban, File)