Zelensky is ready to give up territories that Russia controls, but in return he wants the rest of Ukraine to be “under the NATO umbrella,” Sky News reports.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the country’s accession to NATO could stop the hot phase of hostilities, even if it happens without the return of Russian territories. In an interview with Sky, he said that under the NATO umbrella, Ukraine would be able to agree on the return of the territories through diplomatic means.
In an interview with Sky News chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay, the Ukrainian president said:
“If we want to stop the hot phase of the war, we need to take under the NATO umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control. We need to do it fast. And then on the [occupied] territory of Ukraine, Ukraine can get them back in a diplomatic way.”
This statement was the first since 2022 in which Zelensky allowed the possibility of ending the conflict without the immediate restoration of the 1991 borders. Earlier, Kyiv’s official position was to continue fighting until full ‘liberation’.
A year ago Kyiv asked the US and European countries to arm 10 brigades of the AFU, but as a result only 2.5 brigades were armed and clothed, Zelensky complained in an interview with Sky News.
According to him, in this environment it makes no sense to lower the age of mobilised Ukrainians. Zelensky claimed:
“The real problem [is] with 10 brigades which our partners didn’t equip. I asked them very much more than one year ago, that we need to equip these brigades. We made this solution with the US and European allies and for today totally Europe and the US equipped 2.5 brigades.”
Earlier, the US urged Ukraine to lower the mobilisation age from 25 to 18.
