The Ukrainian president told Sky News's chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay NATO membership would have to be offered to unoccupied parts of the country in order to end the "hot phase of the war", as long as the NATO invitation itself recognises Ukraine's internationally recognised borders.
Summary
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested a ceasefire could be possible if Ukraine’s NATO membership is offered for areas under Kyiv’s control, with occupied regions negotiated diplomatically later.
This marks the first time Zelenskyy has hinted at a deal leaving some Russian-occupied territory temporarily under Moscow’s control.
He emphasized NATO membership as essential to prevent further Russian aggression.
Zelenskyy also expressed readiness to work with Donald Trump, despite reports that Trump’s plans may involve Ukraine ceding occupied land.
Roughly 20% of Ukraine remains under Russian control.
If Ukraine wants this, it's their choice, and I absolutely understand why they would want to end the war.
But Russia should not think we can return to business as usual after this.
It's shameful IMO that EU hasn't helped Ukraine more.
When they lost Chrimea, it was a total loss and a further war was inevitable. If you give up more territory for NATO membership, you can rest assured you won't go to war again.
The Winter War, which is generally considered a Soviet failure, still ended with Finland ceding a significant amount of territory to the Soviet Union. I wonder how similar Ukrainian leaders think their situation is to Finland's...
Zelenskyy also expressed readiness to work with Donald Trump, despite reports that Trump’s plans may involve Ukraine ceding occupied land.
There's no other reasonable course of action available to Zelensky. With that said, Trump might be volatile enough to actually support Ukraine's NATO bid. I don't think a rational US President would.
He's a wildcard but Trump has pretty consistently opposed NATO including wanting the US to withdraw from it. Which makes sense as it would benefit Putin.
In his credit; he did criticise the other members for not spending enough on defence and that turned out to be a valid criticism and now everyone has increased that spending.
That seems totally reasonable to me. "We'll stop fighting, and let you have what you stole. But if you attack again at all, it'll be a very different kind of fight for you. In the long run, you'll probably have lost more than you gained by pulling this bullshit."
No it's not actually reasonable, Russia doesn't deserve to get anything.
But I can perfectly understand why Ukraine doesn't want this war, they never wanted it. It was 100% Russian aggression, and that shouldn't be rewarded, but sometimes reality isn't fair, and you have to make unpleasant compromises.
You are not wrong, but joining NATO is the only way to ensure Russia won't just declare war again. And we have to be realistic here: Ukraine has surpassed all expectations here already. We can't expect this miracle to go on indefinitely.