Dfirst end the war. In an interview with Sky News, reported by the BBC, the Ukrainian president said he was ready to accept the accession of part of his territories to NATO, but only if the latter is offered to the whole country, to within its internationally recognized borders. Thus, kyiv could then try to negotiate the return of territory currently under Russian control “in a diplomatic way,” he said.
In his interview, Volodymyr Zelensky suggested that he was willing to wait before recovering the areas occupied by the Russian army – almost a fifth of the country – if an agreement with NATO could offer security to the rest of Ukraine and put an end to the fighting. kyiv has so far always ruled out ceding territories in exchange for peace, while Vladimir Putin demands that the Ukrainian army withdraw from more territories and refuses any accession of his adversary to NATO.
Moscow controls about 18% of Ukraine's internationally recognized territory, including the Crimean peninsula which it annexed in 2014. Russia has also annexed the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhia regions, although it does not control them. not entirely. Furthermore, 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 “Orechnik” missile in response to the sending , on Russian territory, missiles supplied by the United States and the United Kingdom.
White House and membership postponement
President Zelensky has already said he believes the war could end in the coming year if Ukraine's allies show sufficient resolve. Reports suggest that discussions about the so-called West Germany model – NATO membership offered to a divided country – have been underway in Western circles for more than a year. But no formal proposal has yet been made.
After nearly three years of conflict, and a new winter which already promises to be harsh, the international aid context is not improving for Ukraine either, particularly after the uncertainties surrounding the recent re-election of Donald Trump to the presidency. head of the United States. However, the Ukrainian leader said he would send a team in the coming days to meet with representatives of Mr. Trump, including the special envoy for Ukraine recently appointed by the president-elect, retired general Keith Kellogg.
In April, General Kellogg co-authored a plan called “America First: Russia & Ukraine,” which calls for freezing the front lines in Ukraine and pressuring kyiv and Moscow to sit down. the negotiating table. Under the plan, future U.S. military assistance to Ukraine would be conditional on kyiv's willingness to enter into peace talks.
A ceasefire still improbable
In the event of a ceasefire, Washington would continue to provide military assistance and “strengthen defenses [de l’Ukraine] to ensure that Russia will not make further advances and attack again after a ceasefire or peace agreement.” According to these proposals, Ukraine's membership in NATO would be postponed for an extended period. “Without NATO, Ukraine's independence is not real, because it [Vladimir Poutine] will come back,” insisted Mr. Zelensky.
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The possibility of a ceasefire, however, seems to be receding between the two belligerents, against a backdrop of escalation and exchanges of fire still sustained beyond enemy lines, and even if Moscow could run out of steam from here a year and a half.
But it is also worth noting that, so far, Putin has absolutely not indicated that he has abandoned his desire to completely subjugate Ukraine, as the BBC points out, which adds that the idea that he would be ready to allow part of Ukraine to join NATO is, for the moment, “unthinkable”. “If we are talking about a ceasefire, (we need) guarantees that Putin will not return,” Zelensky said on Sky News.
