A solution for a ceasefire? During an interview with Sky News, Volodymyr Zelensky raised for the first time a hypothesis to end the war which has pitted him against Russia for more than a thousand days. The Ukrainian president suggests rapid accession of the Ukrainian territories controlled by kyiv to NATO, thus accepting that the areas occupied by Russia will not be affected by such an agreement for the moment.
“This is one of the solutions to end the hot phase of the war: we can give NATO membership to the parts of Ukraine which are under our control,” he said, according to comments translated by the British channel. “It’s a possibility, but no one has offered it to us,” adds the Ukrainian president.
“Diplomatic path”
There is no question of abandoning the territories conquered by Russia. “Legally, you do not have the right to recognize the occupied territories as Russian territories. We must not make this mistake, he specifies, referring to a provision of the Ukrainian Constitution. But if we want to stop the hot phase of this war, we must place under the aegis of NATO the Ukrainian territories that we have under our control.”
“This is what we need to do quickly,” insisted Volodymyr Zelensky, deeming a ceasefire necessary, accompanied by this protection that his country “greatly needs”, in order to “guarantee that Putin will not return “.
As for the territories occupied by Russia, particularly in the East? “Ukraine will be able to recover the other parts of its territory through diplomatic channels,” he explains. Before deploring: “This proposal was never considered by Ukraine because no one officially proposed it to us.”
As of September 1, Russia occupied 66,266 km2 of Ukrainian territory. With Crimea, annexed in 2014, and the eastern areas already under the control of pro-Russian separatists before the invasion, the advances confirmed or claimed by Moscow represent 18% of the territory of Ukraine in 2013.
This statement marks an evolution of the Ukrainian position. In mid-October, President Volodymyr Zelensky presented his “victory plan” during a speech to the Ukrainian Parliament. In the latter he ruled out ceding “territory” to Russia or accepting a freeze of the front line, believing that the Kremlin must lose the war launched in February 2022.
“Different voices”
The imminent arrival of Donald Trump in power, which raises fears of a reduction in American support for kyiv, could change the situation. “We need to work with the new president,” Zelensky told Sky News.
“I want to work directly with him because there are different voices around him,” he assures, emphasizing the importance of maintaining communication with the president-elect. “It will serve no purpose and will be destructive. We must try to find a new model. I want to share ideas with him and I want to hear him,” he concludes.
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