US links security guarantees to Ukraine giving up Donbas, Zelenskiy says

The U.S. is making its offer of security guarantees for a peace deal in Ukraine conditional on Kyiv ceding all of the country's eastern region of Donbas to

Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Reuters in an interview.



With the U.S. focused on its own conflict with Iran, President Donald Trump is applying pressure to Ukraine in an effort to bring a quick end to the four-year war triggered by Russia's 2022 invasion, Zelenskiy said.



"The Middle East definitely has an impact on President Trump, and I think on his next steps. President Trump, unfortunately, in my opinion, still chooses a strategy of putting more pressure on the Ukrainian side," he told Reuters.



Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, and swaths of Ukraine laid waste, in Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War Two.



The Ukrainian leader has repeatedly said robust security guarantees from international partners are needed to ensure that Russia does not restart hostilities in the future, after any peace deal is agreed.