Credit: Sky News
Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday night that he was willing to cede territory to Russia to end the war for the first time.
The Ukrainian president said his country could give up land temporarily in exchange for a “Nato umbrella” over the territory Ukraine still holds.
He added that after a ceasefire was agreed, Kyiv could “diplomatically” negotiate the return of the territory in the east that is currently under Russian control.
“If we want to stop the hot stage of the war, we should take under [the] Nato umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control,” Zelensky said in an interview with Sky News.
“That’s what we need to do fast, and then Ukraine can get back the other part of its territory diplomatically,” he added.
The comments represent a considerable shift in his position. Kyiv has previously said it would continue to fight Russia until Ukraine was returned to its internationally recognised borders, which include the four regions annexed by Vladimir Putin in 2022, as well as Crimea.
The shift comes as Donald Trump prepares to take office with a promise to end the war on “day one”. Meanwhile, support for a peace deal is also growing among European allies.
Under plans floated by Mr Trump’s team, a peace deal would see the current front line frozen in place, and Ukraine agreeing to shelve its ambitions to join Nato for 20 years. If agreed, the US would pump Ukraine with weapons to deter future Russian aggression.
Mr Zelensky hinted in his interview that the “Nato umbrella” would not be full membership of Nato, something Putin has rejected as part of any peace deal.
Rather, it could mean Nato member states, including Britain, the US, France and Germany, providing individual security guarantees to Ukraine.
Asked in the interview whether Kyiv would be willing to give up territory to Moscow altogether in exchange for full Nato membership, he said: “No one has offered us to be in Nato with just one part or another part of Ukraine.”
He added that it “could be possible, but no one offered”.
He later said he would be willing to consider ceding the Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine in exchange for the free parts of Ukraine to be brought under the “Nato umbrella”.
The inauguration of the Mr Trump on January 20 is expected to accelerate talks over how to end the war.
Mr Trump is thought to be considering a plan that would call on European and British troops to enforce an 800-mile buffer zone between the Russian and Ukrainian armies as part of a plan to end the war.
Speaking to The Telegraph this week, former prime minister Boris Jonson said that British troops should help defend Ukraine’s border as part of any peace deal.
He said that any responsibility to guard a future ceasefire line between Ukraine and Russia should be given to a multinational group of European peacekeeping forces.
“I don’t think we should be sending in combat troops to take on the Russians,” he told the Telegraph’s Ukraine: The Latest podcast.
“But I think as part of the solution, as part of the end state, you’re going to want to have multinational European peacekeeping forces monitoring the border [and] helping the Ukrainians.
“I cannot see that such a European operation could possibly happen without the British.”
Mr Johnson said Western countries should make clear what security guarantees would be offered to Ukraine as part of any peace deal, to ensure Russia could not simply re-arm and attack again after a few years.
Mr Zelensky switched to English in the latter part of his interview and suggested that other countries had unofficially proposed a ceasefire agreement between Ukraine and Russia.
“A lot of different countries proposed a ceasefire,” he said. “The question is, ceasefire where?”
He went on to say that if a ceasefire was agreed, it must guarantee “that Putin will not come back”.
“We need [Nato protection] very much, otherwise [Putin] will come back. Otherwise, how are we going to go to a ceasefire? So for us, it’s very dangerous.”
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