Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky signaled on Friday that he is shifting his position on his country’s war against Russia.
Zelensky is now reportedly willing to concede territory to Russia to bring an end to the war that was started in 2022 when Russian forces invaded.
“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,” Zelensky said in an interview with Sky News.
“We need to do it fast,” he continued. “And then on the [occupied] territory of Ukraine, Ukraine can get them back in a diplomatic way.”
The Telegraph reported that Zelensky’s new remarks represented “a considerable shift in his position” after he previously indicated that Ukraine would fight Russia until the country regained complete control of all of its internationally recognized borders.
Zelensky said that he wants to work directly with President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised to bring a quick end to the war, but has declined to divulge details on how he will do it.
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“I want to work with him directly because there are different voices from people around him. And that’s why we need not to [allow] anybody around to destroy our communication,” he said. “It will be not helpful and will be destructive. We have to try to find the new model. I want to share with him ideas and I want to hear from him.”
He said that the two had a “very warm, good, constructive” conversation when they talked in September, adding that it was “an important first step.”
Zelensky’s remarks come after Trump appointed Army Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg to serve as his Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia.
Kellogg wrote in a policy paper at the America First Policy Institute that Russia’s war in Ukraine was “an avoidable crisis that, due to the Biden Administration’s incompetent policies and rejection of the America First approach to national security, has entangled America in an endless war.”
He said the administration’s “risk-averse pattern in the armament of Ukraine coupled with a failure in diplomacy with Russia has prolonged the war in Ukraine, which now finds itself in a war of attrition with Russia.”
He wrote that the U.S. plans to seek “a cease-fire and negotiated settlement” to bring the war in Ukraine to an end.
“The United States would continue to arm Ukraine and strengthen its defenses to ensure Russia will make no further advances and will not attack again after a cease-fire or peace agreement,” he said. “Future American military aid, however, will require Ukraine to participate in peace talks with Russia.”