Ukrainian President Voldymir Zelensky hinted that a ceasefire agreement could be reached if the Ukrainian territory now under his control was taken "under the NATO umbrella" which would allow him to negotiate the return of the rest of the territory "in a diplomatic way".
In an interview with Sky News, Zelenskiy was asked to respond to media reports that one of US President-elect Donald Trump's plans to end the war could be for Kiev to cede territories it has seized to Moscow in exchange for Ukraine joining NATO.
Zelensky said that NATO membership would have to be offered to the unoccupied parts of Ukraine in order to end the "hot phase of the war", and that the invitation to NATO membership would have to recognize the internationally recognized borders of Ukraine.
It seemed that he accepted that the occupied eastern parts of the country would be outside such an agreement for now, writes Sky News on its portal.
"If we want to stop the hot phase of the war, we should take under the NATO umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control," said Zelenski.
"We need to do it quickly, and then Ukraine can regain the (occupied) territory through diplomatic means," he added.
He said the ceasefire was needed to "guarantee that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin will not return" to seize more Ukrainian territory.
He said that NATO needs "immediately" to cover the part of Ukraine that remains under Kiev's control, which, he said, Ukraine needs "very much, because in the future he will come back."
In the first interview with the British media since Trump's victory in the elections, Zelensky was asked what he thought of him and said that Ukraine must cooperate with the new president in order to have someone who supports them.
"I want to work with him directly because he has different voices than the people around him, and that's why we need to not let anyone around destroy our communication," he said.
In this interview, Zelenskiy hinted for the first time that the ceasefire agreement could include Russian control of Ukrainian territory. During the entire conflict, Zelensky never said that he would cede any part of the occupied Ukrainian territory to Russia, including Crimea, which Russia seized in February 20114 and officially annexed the following month, writes Sky News.
About a fifth of Ukraine's territory is under Russian control.
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