Ukraine denies media reports on agreement to Donbas “buffer zone” UPDATED

The Office of the President of Ukraine has rejected claims by French newspaper Le Monde that Kyiv is willing to establish a “buffer zone” in the Donbas region as part of negotiations with the United States.

Dmitry Litvin, communications advisor to the President of Ukraine, told journalists that the newspaper’s interpretation was incorrect, Caliber.Az reports via Ukrainian media.

He explained that Mikhail Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the Presidential Office, did not indicate Ukraine’s consent to any such arrangement. Instead, Podolyak had noted that different security models could theoretically be discussed, but any decisions would depend on the specific details, control mechanisms, and legal guarantees.

Litvin emphasised that any final decision on such matters could only be made at the highest political level or by the Ukrainian people, reiterating that the president had made this clear to journalists the previous day.

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Ukrainian authorities support the creation of a demilitarised buffer zone in Donbas but stress that it requires a mutual withdrawal of forces along the current front line.

This provision is included in the new 20-point peace plan developed by Kyiv with support from the UK, France, and Germany, which Ukraine recently submitted to the United States, Le Monde reports, citing sources.

Kyiv believes that establishing such a zone would necessitate the withdrawal of both Ukrainian and Russian troops on either side of the existing front line.

“The demilitarised zone must exist on both sides of the front line. It will be necessary to determine, from both a logical and legal perspective, whether all types of weapons or only heavy ones should be withdrawn,” Mykhailo Podolyak, advisor to the head of President Zelenskyy’s office, told Le Monde.

He acknowledged that some of the territories in question would remain under Russian control.

Mykhailo Podolyak stressed that it is necessary to clearly and precisely define which volumes and missions will be entrusted to third parties, indicating that the Ukrainians would “ideally” like the United States to participate in this supervisory force to ensure “monitoring, intelligence gathering, enforcement of agreements, control over unauthorised troop movements, and oversight of adherence to the separation line.”

This approach echoes the demilitarised zone (DMZ) established between North and South Korea under the armistice signed in 1953 to end the conflict between the two countries, without a peace treaty ever being signed since. In the Korean case, the DMZ is four kilometres wide and 250 kilometres long along the border between the two nations. In the Ukrainian case, it could be much longer and deeper.

Territorial concession is heartbreaking for Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but it is intended to prevent outright abandonment, as Moscow has demanded for months, of parts of Donbass not occupied by Russia—amounting to 20% of the Donetsk region alone.

This Kremlin demand represents an absolute red line for the Ukrainian president, who is aware of the opposition from military circles and the Ukrainian public to any form of surrender.

By Jeyhun Aghazada