In an interview with Sky News on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi indicated that he is willing to end the war in Ukraine in exchange for his country’s membership in NATO, even if Russia does not immediately return the occupied territories. Zelenskyi said that in order to end the “hot phase of the war”, it would be necessary to offer membership in NATO to the unoccupied parts of the country, if the invitation to the alliance itself mentioned the internationally recognized borders of Ukraine.
Photo: SITA/AP, Jose Luis Magana
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks at the Ronald Reagan Institute on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Washington, July 9, 2024.
According to Sky News, Ukraine’s president suggested that a ceasefire deal could be struck if Ukrainian territory controlled by the country was brought “under the protective umbrella of NATO”. According to him, this would make it possible to negotiate later on the return of the occupied territories “by diplomatic means”.
In an interview with Sky News Chief Correspondent Stuart Ramsay, Zelenskyi responded to media reports that one of US President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to end the war could be for Kiev to cede territory seized by Moscow to Russia in exchange for Ukraine joining NATO.
Zelensky seems to agree that the occupied eastern parts of the country will be excluded from such an agreement for the time being, Sky News added. “If we want to stop the ‘hot phase of the war’, we have to take the territory of Ukraine under NATO’s umbrella,” Zelenskyy said. “We have to do it quickly. And the occupied territories of Ukraine can be regained by the country through diplomatic means,” he added.
Zelenskyy said the ceasefire was needed to “guarantee that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin does not come back” and take more parts of Ukrainian territory. According to him, NATO should “immediately” cover the part of Ukraine that remains under Kiev’s control.
In his first interview with British media since Donald Trump’s election victory, Zelenskyy said: “We have to work with the new president” to have “the biggest supporter”. “I want to work directly with him, because different voices are heard from the people around him. And therefore it is necessary that we (not allow) anyone from the neighborhood to destroy our communication,” the Ukrainian president added.
This is the first conversation in which Zelenskyi has hinted at the possibility of a ceasefire agreement that would include Russian control of any part of Ukrainian territory. Throughout the conflict, the Ukrainian president has never said he would cede any occupied territory to Russia — including Crimea, which Russia seized in February 2014 and annexed the following month in violation of international law.
He said that such a step is not allowed by the Ukrainian constitution and that the only way it would be possible is the consent of the residents of these areas to secession.
He went the furthest so far in an interview with Le Monde in July of this year, when he suggested that the occupied territories could join Russia if they voted in a free and fair referendum. However, he said that Kyiv would first have to have these territories back under its control in order to hold such a vote.
About a fifth of Ukraine’s territory now remains under Russian control.
Source: spravy.pravda.sk
