The Daily Populous Tuesday December 16th, 2025 day edition
Authored by newsukraine.rbc.ua and submitted by jackytheblade

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Ukraine does not want to give up Donbas and will not recognize it as Russian, he states in response to media questions.

The head of state also noted that the US is proposing the creation of a free economic zone.

“We do not want to give up our Donbas. The Americans want to find a compromise; they are proposing a free economic zone. I want to emphasize again - a free economic zone does not mean under Russian control. These are important features for me in any Donbas format,” the president said.

Zelenskyy emphasized that Ukraine will not recognize the temporarily occupied part of Donbas as Russian. At the same time, he added that the issue of territories is being discussed.

“Neither de jure nor de facto will we recognize Donbas as Russian, the part that is temporarily occupied. Nevertheless, we will discuss the issue of the territory. You know that this is one of the key points, and we do not yet have a consensus on this matter,” the head of state concluded.

US peace plan, Donbas, and a referendum

In November, the US presented a new peace plan to end the war in Ukraine. It consisted of 28 points and was clearly favorable to Russia, which is why Ukraine, the US, and Europe have been continuously working on revising it.

On December 14–15, further negotiations took place in Berlin between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump’s team, and European leaders.

On the first day of the meeting, negotiations were held between Ukraine and the US. According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump’s envoys did not demonstrate readiness for compromises and insisted on agreeing as quickly as possible, aiming to finalize it by the end of the year.

According to AFP, the key point of disagreement was the territorial issue. The US again insisted on the withdrawal of Ukrainian Armed Forces from Donbas - essentially echoing Russia’s demands - but Zelenskyy rejected this approach. He noted that a ceasefire is possible without territorial concessions.

Recently, the Ukrainian president stated that decisions regarding territories should be determined by the Ukrainian people, through either elections or a referendum.

In his overnight comments today, Zelenskyy said that the question of a referendum is not on the table for now, but at the same time, Ukraine is ready for elections as soon as a ceasefire is in place.

dimwalker on December 16th, 2025 at 07:42 UTC »

Ukraine is Ukraine. Might sound obvious to you, but ~80-90% of russia and ~30% of US can't grasp that concept.

IOnlyEatFermions on December 16th, 2025 at 03:22 UTC »

2026 Nobel Peace Prize nomination deadline is January 31. That is what is driving Trump's urgency.

Marchello_E on December 16th, 2025 at 03:21 UTC »

It simple. If it was not Ukrainian territory then Russia didn't have to invade.

If they are confused, the Russians can look at their own maps at the time they agreed upon the territorial integrity in all several treaties, memorandi (Budapest), acts (Helsinki), and charters (UN-2). The Russian may not like it and occupy parts and terrorize the rest of it, but that doesn't make it theirs.