Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he will give up territory to achieve an end to the war with Russia.
After two and a half years of conflict, since Russia invaded the country in February 2022, Zelenskyy said in an interview with Britain’s Sky News channel that Ukraine would need to be protected by the “NATO umbrella” in order to achieve peace.
“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.
“That’s what we need to do fast, and then Ukraine can get back the other part of its territory diplomatically.”
Such comments indicate a significant shift in position for Zelenskyy, who has long insisted he will not give up one inch of Ukrainian territory.
This included a return to Ukraine’s original borders, as well as the Crimea region that was annexed by Putin back in 2014.
However, Zelenskyy admitted that full NATO membership has not been offered, a proposal that Putin has rejected as being part of any peace agreement.
“No one has offered us to be in NATO with just one part or another part of Ukraine,” he explained.
“We need [NATO protection] very much, otherwise [Putin] will come back,” he continued. “Otherwise, how are we going to go to a ceasefire? So for us, it’s very dangerous.”
Watch the interview below:
Zelenskyy’s shift in position is almost certainly linked to Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Trump has long claimed that he will bring both sides to the negotiating table at the first opportunity and help bring the war to an end.
Following his election victory, it was reported that Trump had spoken to Putin by phone and urged him not to stop escalating the conflict.
However, Trump’s position is not shared by many in Europe. Just this week, a senior NATO official urged people to prepare for a “wartime scenario” as Britain and France considered the deployment of troops to Ukraine.
“If we can make sure that all crucial services and goods can be delivered no matter what, then that is a key part of our deterrence,” Bauer said at an event in Brussels.
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The post WW3 WATCH: Zelenskyy Finally Says He Will Give Up Ukrainian Territory – In Return For Joining the ‘NATO Umbrella’ (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.