Russia Has Rejected Ukraine’s Donbas Referendum Proposal.

Kyiv; December 2025: Russia has rejected a proposal to hold a referendum in letting Ukrainians decide on giving up territory in the eastern Donbas region, much of which Moscow claims to control, highlighting a key sticking point as negotiators head to Berlin for high stakes talks amid pressure from the United States for a deal to end Russia’s war on Ukraine.

“This area is Russian territory“, Yuri Ushakov, foreign policy adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin said on December 12th during a trip to the Turkmen capital of Ashgabat. Ushakov, who was referring to Russia’s 2022 illegal annexation of the Ukrainian region after it had launched its full-scale invasion earlier that year, made the comments a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed a vote be held in Ukraine to decide the issue.

After the United States proposed a 28-point peace plan that critics say heavily favoured Russia, Ukraine and European nations have been seeking changes that would leave a deal less lopsided and, crucially, ensure Ukrainian security against any future Russian attack. Kyiv submitted a 20-point plan earlier this week.

Ukrainian and European officials are expected to further refine their stance at this weekend meeting planned in Berlin, with U.S. President Donald Trump saying he’d send a representative “if we think there’s a good chance. And we don’t want to waste a lot of time if we think it’s negative“.

A German government spokesperson said in a statement that Zelensky and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will then hold talks on December 15th with other European and NATO leaders joining them afterward. The status of the Ukraine’s Russian-held Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant is another divisive issue, Zelenskyy said.

While Russia has given few signs it’s ready to back away from long-standing demands, US and Ukrainian officials have been wrangling over the details.

Zelenskyy said on December 11^th; he had an “in-depth” discussion with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense chief Pete Hegseth, and White House special envoy Steve Witkoff. The US is proposing that that Ukrainian troops withdraw from the well-fortified portion of the Donetsk region that they still control, Zelenskyy said, and “the compromise is supposedly that Russian troops will not enter” this area, where Washington calls for establishing a “free economic zone”.

“They do not know who will govern this territory” Zelenskyy said, adding that Russia refers to it as a “demilitarised zone”. He also said that Ukrainians should have a say on any proposed territorial concessions, “whether through elections or a referendum“.

Following reports that US President Donald Trump has set 25th December the deadline for Ukraine to accept the peace proposal, Zelenskyy said that Kyiv had not been given a firm deadline but that “I think they really wanted, or perhaps still want, to have a complete understanding of where we stand with this agreement by Christmas”. Trump has been seeking to broker an end to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine since he took office in January of this year, but has encountered high hurdles including Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rejection of calls for a cease-fire.

On elections, which the US has been pressing Ukraine to hold despite the fact that they are forbidden under martial law, Zelensky has asserted on December 11th that a cease-fire would have to be in place.

Meanwhile, while speaking to media journalists, Maryna Stavniychuk, a Ukrainian legal expert and former member of the Venice Commission, said that “specific issues as wartime and post-war elections are not regulated in any way by the electoral code of Ukraine. Therefore, a special set of legislative norms is needed, and this takes time. Ukraine must look for options that, without violating the constitution or further undermining the legitimacy of the Ukrainian government, would allow elections to be held“.

Team Maverick.