Kyiv, 21 October. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in an interview with Fox News, answered yes when asked whether he would accept a peace agreement freezing hostilities along the current front line if Ukraine kept 75% of its territory or more.
"Yes. Now we need to freeze, and I think this is a real way to end this war. We call it a ceasefire or a stop to the killing, as President Trump put it. Freeze and stop. And that is the minimum we need from Russia today," Zelensky said. If a truce is reached, he added, Ukraine will turn to Donald Trump and its European allies for security guarantees: "The most important thing is peace, and peace backed by security."
TASS summarised Zelensky's words as follows: Ukraine is ready to accept a peace deal involving the loss of part of its former territories. The interview came out on the day US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff met Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg; after the talks his plane returned to Oslo.
Before the talks in Oslo, The New York Times, as Atameken Business recalls, wrote that the US intended to persuade Zelensky to make territorial concessions for the sake of an agreement with Russia: Trump's aides considered the moment a turning point, expected Kyiv to be ready to negotiate even if that meant giving up territory, and intended to explain the economic benefits of a deal.
What it means: Ukraine's president has publicly named the condition on which he is ready to stop the war without regaining all of its territory: a freeze along the current front line if at least three-quarters of the country remains under Kyiv's control, and security guarantees after the truce.
Who benefits: Zelensky calls a freeze the minimum Ukraine needs from Russia and a real way to end the war; he expects security guarantees from Trump and the European allies. According to the NYT, it was Washington that pushed Kyiv towards territorial concessions. The sources do not give Moscow's reaction to the interview.
Background: On the same evening Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said that Moscow was ready to resume three-way talks with the US and Ukraine in mid-November.
List of sources used: Atameken Business, TASS, RBC
Artificial intelligence was used in preparing this material.
