Zelensky says for the first time he is willing to cede Ukrainian territory to Russia to achieve peace

Volodimir Zelensky suggested that Ukraine could cede occupied territory to Russia to end the "hot phase" of the war. The Ukrainian president spoke to Sky News and hinted that his government would be willing to negotiate with Moscow, although he said his country should be "under the umbrella" of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), something Vladimir Putin is very much against.

The war between Ukraine and Russia began on February 24, 2022 and is already well on its way to three years of duration. However, the return of Donald Trump to the White House promises to be a game-changer in the war, given that the president-elect is not the biggest fan of continuing to send weapons to Ukraine. At the same time, he said on the campaign trail that he would put an end to the conflict before taking office.

"If we want to stop the hot stage of the war, we should quickly take under NATO umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control. That's what we need to do first, and then Ukraine can get back the other parts of its territory in a diplomatic way," the Ukrainian president expressed in dialogue with the aforementioned media.

In regards to Trump, he noted that he intends to work together, "but I want to work with him directly because there are different voices from people around him."

The president-elect recently appointed retired general Keith Kellogg as special envoy for Ukraine and Russia. ""Together, we will secure PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH, and Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN!", he assured on social media.

This is the first time Zelensky has suggested that he would be willing to cede Russian-occupied territory, at least initially. He added that Kiev had not considered such an idea because "no one" had officially proposed it.

According to his comments, the territories occupied by Russia since February 2022 would not come under this "NATO umbrella." Since the beginning of the war, Russian troops took Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson, although they do not control 100% of the territory of these provinces.

These statements by Zelensky differ with those he made in the past. Indeed, he previously stated that Ukraine "will never exchange any status for any of our territories," and that Ukraine's signs of joining NATO were partly "nonsense."