Zelensky agrees to make concessions to end the war if NATO agrees to a condition

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday he was ready to accept NATO protection guarantees initially limited to territory controlled by Kyiv, in order to end the hot phase of the war led by Russia.

The comments came amid rising tensions in the nearly three-year-old war.

Zelensky has hinted that he is willing to wait before retaking the areas occupied by the Russian military — roughly a fifth of the country’s territory — if such an agreement could provide security for the rest of Ukraine and end the fighting.

“If we want to stop the hot phase of the war, we need to put under NATO the territory of Ukraine that we control,” Zelensky said.

“This is what we need to do quickly, and then Ukraine can diplomatically regain the other part of its territory,” he added.

Kiev has so far ruled out giving up territory for peace, while Russian President Vladimir Putin is demanding that the Ukrainian army withdraw from more territory and rejects Ukraine’s accession to NATO.

Russia controls about 18% of Ukraine’s internationally recognized territory, including Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

Russia has annexed the Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhia regions, although it doesn’t control them completely.

In recent weeks, Russian forces have made gains on the ground at a rate not seen since early 2022.

The conflict has recently intensified with large-scale strikes on Kyiv-controlled territory, and Putin threatening to hit decision-making centers in the Ukrainian capital with his new hypersonic Oreshnik missile.

Talk of a possible ceasefire or peace deal has intensified since Donald Trump won the US presidential election earlier this month.

The Republican president-elect has criticized US aid to Kiev, saying he could stop the conflict in a matter of hours, without specifying how.

Zelensky stressed that any offer of NATO membership must be for all of Ukraine, but his comments suggest he could accept that the alliance’s protection (Article 5 of NATO’s collective defense treaty) would apply only to territory controlled by Kyiv.

“If we talk about a ceasefire, we need guarantees that Putin won’t return,” Zelensky said.

From his part, Russian president, Vladimir Putin, had earlier called on Kiev to abandon its ambitions to join NATO if it wanted to reach a peace deal.

As the conflict on the battlefield escalated two weeks ago, Zelenskyy has held a series of phone calls with Western leaders in recent days, including British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Macron on Friday denounced Russia’s unacceptable logic of escalation in Ukraine, stressing that Paris will continue to help Kiev intensively and as long as necessary, regardless of Russian threats, according to the Elysee.

“These strikes, the growing cooperation with North Korea and the irresponsible rhetoric that accompanies all this, are part of an unacceptable logic of escalation by Russia, which continues to pursue a reactionary, brutal and imperialist agenda, in violation of Ukraine’s sovereign rights and the UN Charter,” Macron was quoted as saying in a statement by the French presidency.

For his part, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart on Friday to brief him on “US goals” for providing “sustained support to Ukraine,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

The US administration of outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden has intensified its support for Kiev since Trump’s election victory, transferring more weapons and giving Ukraine permission to fire long-range missiles at Russian territory.

On Friday, Zelensky appointed a new commander of the ground forces, Mykhailo Drabati, in a move to strengthen the army’s leadership.

Drapati previously commanded forces in the northeastern Kharkiv sector and faced a new Russian surprise offensive earlier this year.

“These personnel decisions are aimed at strengthening our army and improving its combat readiness,” Defense Minister Rustam Umarov said.