Zelensky says he is ready to make concessions if NATO protects territories controlled by kyiv

Photo: Tobias Schwarz Agence France-Presse Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a press conference on October 11, 2024.

Agence France-Presse in kyiv

Published yesterday at 21:05

• Europe

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday he was ready to accept NATO protection guarantees initially limited to territories controlled by kyiv in order to “put an end to the hot phase of the war” waged by Russia.

Nearly three years after Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale offensive, Donald Trump’s planned return to the White House in January, amid an escalation marked by Moscow’s firing of a powerful new missile into Ukraine, has rekindled questions about the possibility of a ceasefire.

Zelensky has suggested he is willing to wait to reclaim areas occupied by the Russian military — nearly a fifth of the country — if such a deal could provide security for the rest of Ukraine and end the fighting.

“If we want to end the hot phase of the war, we need to bring the territory of Ukraine that we control under NATO control,” the president told British broadcaster Sky News, according to a voiceover translation of his remarks in English.

“This is what we need to do quickly, and then Ukraine can get the other part of its territory back through diplomatic channels,” he added.

kyiv has so far ruled out giving up territory in exchange for peace, while Vladimir Putin is demanding that the Ukrainian military withdraw from more territory and has rejected any accession of his adversary to NATO.

Moscow controls about 18 percent of Ukraine’s internationally recognized territory, including the Crimean Peninsula, which it annexed in 2014. Russia has also annexed the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions, although it does not control them entirely.

In recent weeks, Russian forces have been making territorial gains against a weakened Ukrainian army at a speed not seen since early 2022.

And the conflict has recently intensified with massive strikes on territories controlled by kyiv, with Russian President Vladimir Putin threatening to strike decision-making centers in the Ukrainian capital with his new “Oreshnik” missile in response to the sending of missiles supplied by the United States and the United Kingdom to Russian territory.

Donald Trump criticized American aid to kyiv and claimed during his campaign that he could end the conflict in a matter of hours, without however saying how.

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Guarantees

M. Zelensky has insisted that any offer of NATO membership must be made to the whole of Ukraine, but his remarks suggest he may accept that the alliance’s protections, such as the collective defence clause in Article 5, apply only to territory controlled by kyiv.

“If we talk about a ceasefire, [we need] guarantees that Putin will not come back,” Zelensky said in English.

Vladimir Putin has already called on kyiv to abandon its ambitions to join NATO if it wants a peace deal.

Against the backdrop of an escalation of the conflict over the past two weeks, Mr Zelensky held a series of phone calls with Western leaders, including Britain’s Keir Starmer, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Olaf Scholz.

On this occasion, Emmanuel Macron “condemned in the strongest terms Russia’s indiscriminate strikes that continue to intensify against cities, civilians and energy infrastructure in Ukraine,” the French presidency said.

“These strikes, the increased cooperation with North Korea, and the irresponsible rhetoric that accompanies them, are part of an unacceptable logic of escalation on the part of Russia,” Mr Macron added.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also spoke with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga on Friday to brief him on “U.S. goals for sustained support for Ukraine,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

The Biden administration has stepped up its support for kyiv since Trump won the election, transferring more weapons and allowing Ukraine to fire long-range missiles into Russian territory.