Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has suggested that the “hot phase” of the Russia-Ukraine war could end if unoccupied parts of Ukraine came “under the NATO umbrella.”
In an interview with Sky News’ chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay published on Friday, Zelenskyy said: “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.”
“That’s what we need to do fast. And then Ukraine can get back the other part of its territory diplomatically,” he said, adding that no such offer had been made.
But Zelenskyy stressed that NATO membership would need to be offered to Ukraine as a whole, within its internationally recognized borders.
“You can’t give invitation to just one part of a country,” he said. “Why? Because thus you would recognize that Ukraine is only that territory of Ukraine, and the other one is Russia.”
He also said any cease-fire would need to guarantee that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not come back to try to take further Ukrainian land, which he said would happen if NATO did not “immediately” cover the parts of Ukraine that would remain under Kyiv’s control in the proposed plan.
Zelenskyy has long rejected the idea of ceding land to end the war.
In October, he outlined a victory plan for the war that included a refusal to concede territory to Russia and an invitation to join NATO, which he called “the first and very important point.”
Earlier in the year, Zelenskyy also dismissed Donald Trump’s reported secret plan to end the war by ceding territory to Russia as “primitive.”
“If the deal is that we just give up our territories, and that’s the idea behind it, then it’s a very primitive idea,” Zelenskyy said in an interview with Axel Springer media outlets. “I think if he really has a formula and an approach on how to end the war quickly. I need very strong arguments. I don’t need a fantastic idea. I need a real idea because people’s lives are at stake.”
Some reports have suggested that a “West German model” has been discussed as a means of offering NATO membership to Ukraine.
Such a plan could see NATO membership offered to a divided country.
No formal proposal has been made.
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