KYIV, Ukraine — The price of U.S. security guarantees to end Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine became explicit this week: Kyiv must give up all of Donbas — about 10% of its territory, or about 15% of its prewar GDP.
The United States has asked Ukraine to withdraw from all of the eastern region — including areas it has held during more than 14 years of Russian attacks — before it will finaliz...
The strongest version of this narrative highlights a stark geopolitical dilemma: the U.S. is leveraging its security guarantees to pressure Ukraine into territorial concessions, framing it as a pragmatic path to peace. The demand to cede Donbas—home to 200,000 Ukrainians—is presented as a necessary trade-off, with "Article 5-like" guarantees offered as compensation. Yet the ambiguity of these guarantees, coupled with historical failures like the Budapest Memorandum, undermines their credibility....