The US accuses Zelenski of “lying” on the issue of giving up eastern Ukraine. “He should have understood”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday described as “a lie” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's statement that Washington would have offered security guarantees to Kiev on the condition that Ukraine cede the Donbas industrial region in the east of the country to Russia to conclude peace, writes Reuters.

“That's a lie and I've seen him say that and it's a shame that he would say that because he knows it's not true and that's not what he was told,” Rubio said after being asked about the matter following a meeting in France with foreign ministers from the G7 countries.

“What he's been told is obvious. Security guarantees won't go into effect until there's an end to the war, because otherwise you're getting yourself into war. What is a security guarantee? There are troops willing to step in and provide security. If you were to apply that now, you're going to war,” Marco Rubio continued.

The US position is that security guarantees come after the end of the war

“What he was told very clearly, and he should have understood, is that security guarantees come only after there is an end to the war. But that was not conditional on the cession of territory. I don't know why he says these things. They are simply not true,” continued the head of American diplomacy.

Asked what the US position is on Donbas, Rubio replied:

“I told the Ukrainian side what the Russians insist. We don't support that. We explained it to them. It's their choice. It's not our job to decide for them. We never told them they had to accept or reject. Our role was to try to understand what both sides want and see if we can find a middle ground. The final decision belongs to Ukraine.”

“If they don't want to make certain decisions or make certain concessions, then the war continues,” the US secretary of state concluded.

🇺🇸🇺🇦🤔 “That's a lie”: Rubio said about Zelensky's statement about the ultimatum that the US demands that Ukraine give up Donbas in exchange for security guarantees. pic.twitter.com/1u4DtrKaDC

— Savchenko Volodymyr (@SavchenkoReview) March 27, 2026

What Volodymyr Zelensky said

In an interview with Reuters on Wednesday, the Ukrainian president said the Trump administration had offered to provide security guarantees for a peace deal in Ukraine on the condition that Kiev authorities cede to Russia the entire Donbas region in the country's east, which Moscow wants but does not fully control.

The Ukrainian leader said that with the US now focused on its own conflict against Iran, President Trump is pressuring Ukraine to try to end the war unleashed by Russia in February 2022.

“The Middle East certainly has an impact on President Trump and I think on his next steps. Unfortunately, in my opinion, President Trump continues to choose a strategy of putting more pressure on the Ukrainian side,” he told Reuters from his residential complex in Kiev.

Zelenskiy has repeatedly said that Ukraine needs robust security guarantees from international partners to ensure that Russia does not attack it again in the event of a peace deal.

“The Americans are ready to complete these high-level guarantees once Ukraine is ready to withdraw from Donbas,” the Ukrainian president also said in the interview with Reuters, arguing that such a withdrawal would compromise both his country's security and, by extension, Europe's, as it would involve giving up strong defensive positions in the region to Russia.

In January, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the document on security guarantees was “100% ready” and waiting to be signed. Instead, on Tuesday, after talks between Ukrainian and American officials in Miami, he said there was still much work to be done.

Concerns that the US will not deliver the ordered weapons to Ukraine

Marco Rubio's response to Zelenski comes at a new tense moment between Washington and Kiev, amid reports that the US may have to redirect to the Middle East weaponry ordered by Kiev and its European NATO partners.

The Washington Post reported Thursday, citing three people familiar with the matter, that among the weapons that could be diverted are air defense interceptor missiles purchased through a NATO initiative launched last year in which partner countries buy American weaponry for Kiev.

This possibility is analyzed in the context of the intensification of American operations in the region. Admiral Brad Cooper, head of the Central Command that coordinates US forces in the Middle East, said on Wednesday that the United States had struck more than 10,000 targets inside Iran and was on track to limit Iran's ability to project power beyond its borders.

A Pentagon spokesman told The Washington Post that the War Department will “ensure that American forces and those of our allies and partners have everything they need to fight and win.”

Marco Rubio said Friday that the US expects the war in the Middle East to end within weeks.

President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced last July a plan to rearm Ukraine with missiles and other weapons in its fight to repel the Russian invasion. The White House leader emphasized at the time that NATO member countries, and not American taxpayers, would cover the cost of these weapons.

“Today we concluded an agreement whereby we will send weapons to (NATO allies, no) and they will pay for them,” he declared, among other things.