OAN Staff James Meyers
3:49 PM – Friday, November 29, 2024
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is willing to hand over territory to Russia in exchange for NATO protection if it means ending the war.
“If we want to stop the hot stage of the war, we should take under [the] NATO umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control,” Zelensky said through a translator in an interview with Sky News on Friday.
“That’s what we need to do fast, and then Ukraine can get back the other part of its territory diplomatically.”
This comes after Zelensky has been adamant about Ukraine continuing to fight until the country was returned to its internationally recognized borders, including Crimea.
In 2022, Putin annexed four regions in Ukraine, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia, calling them “our citizens forever” in a move that was denounced by Western leaders.
Zelensky hinted that the “NATO umbrella” would not be full membership, something Putin has rejected, but could mean member states providing more individual security guarantees to Ukraine.
Zelensky wouldn’t say whether he’d be willing to give up more territory in exchange for full NATO membership.
“No one has offered us to be in NATO with just one part or another part of Ukraine,” he said. He added, “[it] could be possible, but no one offered.”
He said other countries have offered to broker a cease-fire agreement between the two countries but he seemed skeptical, saying it must guarantee “Putin will not come back.”
“We need [NATO protection] very much, otherwise [Putin] will come back,” he said. “Otherwise, how are we going to go to a ceasefire? So for us, it’s very dangerous.”
Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to end Russia’s war with Ukraine, with both Putin and Zelensky having said they welcomed it.
Zelensky’s comments come just a week after a marked shift in the more than two-year war after Ukraine fired eight U.S. supplied long-range missiles into Russia, several of which struck an ammunition supply location.
“All our partners always look for permission from the United States,” Zelensky told Fox News last week. “If the United States doesn’t give it, Europe will not give.”
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