President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested that parts of Ukraine under his control should be taken “under the Nato umbrella” to try to stop the “hot phase” of the war.
He was asked by Sky News if he would accept Nato membership, but only on the territory of Kyiv at the moment.
Zelensky said he would, but only if NATO membership was granted to all of Ukraine, within its internationally recognized borders, first.
Ukraine may try to negotiate the return of Russian-held territory “through communication,” he said in a wide-ranging interview.
But the proposal is ambitious. Zelensky is not making new proposals – this was a televised interview, not social media – but he is sending signals.
Whether Nato would ever consider such a move is highly questionable.
“Ukraine has never thought about such a proposal, because no one has given it officially,” Zelensky said.
Nato would need to offer membership to the entire country, including those parts under Russian control, he said.
“You can’t give [an] an invitation to one part of the country,” said the president, according to a version provided by Sky News. “Why? Because that way, you will see that Ukraine is only Ukrainian territory, and the other is Russia. “
Many people were proposing a ceasefire, he said, but without a way to prevent Russia from attacking again, a ceasefire was too dangerous.
Only NATO membership, he said, could provide that kind of guarantee.
The Ukrainian president has said that he thinks the war could end next year if Ukraine’s allies show enough determination.
Reports suggest that talks on the so-called West Germany model – Nato membership offered to a divided country – have been going on in Western circles for more than a year.
But no official proposals have been made yet.
Meanwhile, Zelensky was keen to sound willing to engage with any proposals US President-elect Donald Trump might consider.
“I want to share ideas with him, and I want to hear from him, his ideas,” Zelensky said.
The Ukrainian leader said he would send a delegation in the coming days to meet with Trump officials, including the newly elected president’s special envoy to Ukraine, retired general Keith Kellogg.
In April, Gen Kellogg co-authored a plan, called America First: Russia & Ukraine, that would stop the front lines in Ukraine and pressure Kyiv and Moscow to come to the negotiating table.
Future US military aid to Ukraine will depend on Kyiv’s willingness to enter into peace talks, the plan goes.
But in the event of a cease-fire, Washington will continue to provide military assistance and “strengthen [Ukraine’s] safeguards to ensure that Russia will not advance and will not attack again after a ceasefire or peace agreement. “
Under the proposals, Ukraine’s NATO membership would be suspended for a long time.
For Zelensky, this raises an important question: what security guarantees would the Trump administration be willing to provide?
“Without NATO, it is not the real freedom of Ukraine because he [Russian President Vladimir Putin] he will come back,” emphasized Zelensky.
The difference between Zelensky’s peace plan and Trump’s nascent policy remains stark.
But by engaging with the idea of stopping the war and sacrificing territory painfully (at least in the short term), the Ukrainian leader is doing his best to sound positive, knowing that so far there are no similar signals from Washington.
Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014. Eight years later, it invaded Ukraine in full and occupied the eastern part of the country.
But it’s also worth noting that so far Putin has given absolutely no indication that he has abandoned his desire to rule Ukraine entirely.
The idea that he would agree to allow any part of Ukraine to join NATO is, at this point, unthinkable.
All indications so far suggest that any Nato involvement is a complete no-go.
On Thursday, Moscow attacked Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure for the second time in less than two weeks.
Putin called it a response to “continuous attacks” using US-supplied Atacms missiles on Russian soil.
Having endured two and a half bitter winters since the full-scale invasion of Russia in February 2022, Ukrainians are preparing for another.
Additional reporting by Sofia Ferreira Santos.
Source link
