Nearly three years after the launch of a large-scale offensive by Vladimir Putin, the planned return of Donald Trump to the White House in January, in a context of escalation marked by Moscow’s firing of a powerful new missile towards Ukraine, revived questions about the possibility of a ceasefire. Volodymyr Zelensky has suggested he is willing to wait before reclaiming areas occupied by the Russian army – almost a fifth of the country – if such a deal could provide security for the rest of Ukraine and end the fights.
“If we want to end the hot phase of the war, we must bring under the aegis of NATO the territory of Ukraine that we control,” the president told the British channel Sky News, according to a translation in voice-over of his words in English. “This is what we need to do quickly, and then Ukraine can get the other part of its territory back through diplomatic channels,” he added.
kyiv has so far always ruled out ceding territories in exchange for peace, while Vladimir Putin demands that the Ukrainian army withdraw from more territories and refuses any accession of his adversary to NATO. Moscow controls about 18% of Ukraine’s internationally recognized territory, including the Crimean peninsula which it annexed in 2014. Russia has also annexed the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhia regions, although it does not control them. not entirely.
In recent weeks, Russian forces have made territorial gains at a speed not seen since the start of 2022 against a weakened Ukrainian army. And the conflict has recently intensified with massive strikes on territories controlled by kyiv, with Russian President Vladimir Putin threatening to hit decision-making centers in the Ukrainian capital with his new “Orechnik” missile in response to the missile dispatch supplied by the United States and the United Kingdom to Russian territory. Donald Trump criticized US aid to kyiv and claimed during his campaign that he could end the conflict within hours, although he did not say how.
Guarantees
Volodymyr Zelensky has insisted that any offer to join NATO must be made to the whole of Ukraine, but his comments suggest he may accept only alliance protections, such as the clause of collective defense of Article 5, applies only to the territory controlled by kyiv. “If we are talking about a ceasefire, (we need) guarantees that Putin will not return,” he said in English. Vladimir Putin has already asked kyiv to abandon its ambitions to join NATO if it wants a peace agreement.
In the context of an escalation of the conflict for two weeks, the Ukrainian president had a series of telephone calls with Western leaders, notably the British Keir Starmer, the French Emmanuel Macron and the German Olaf Scholz. On this occasion, Emmanuel Macron “condemned with the greatest firmness Russia’s indiscriminate strikes which continue to intensify against cities, against civilians and against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure”, indicated the French presidency . “These strikes, the increased cooperation with North Korea, and the irresponsible rhetoric that accompanies them, are part of an unacceptable logic of escalation on the part of Russia,” added Emmanuel Macron.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also spoke with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga on Friday to brief him on “US goals for sustained support for Ukraine,” the spokesperson said. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller. Joe Biden’s administration has stepped up its support for kyiv since Donald Trump won the election, transferring more weapons and allowing Ukraine to fire long-range missiles into Russian territory.