Zelensky says Ukraine could temporarily cede territory to Russia in exchange for Nato membership

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has suggested he would temporarily cede Ukrainian territory to Russia in exchange for joining Nato.

Mr Zelensky said Nato membership would have to be offered to unoccupied parts of the country to end the “hot phase” of the war and appeared to accept eastern parts of the country would fall outside this deal.

It comes after reports claimed one of US president-elect Donald Trump’s plans to end the war might be for Kyiv to cede the land Moscow has taken in exchange for Ukraine joining the alliance.

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“If we want to stop the hot phase of the war, we need to take under the Nato umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control,” Mr Zelensky told Sky News.

“We need to do it fast. And then on the occupied territory of Ukraine, Ukraine can get them back in a diplomatic way.”

He said Nato should “immediately” cover the part of Ukraine that remains under Kyiv’s control, something he said Ukraine needs “very much otherwise he [Putin] will come back”.

Mr Zelensky was asked what he thought of the Mr Trump and said “we have to work with the new president” in order to “have the biggest supporter”.

“I want to work with him directly because there are different voices from people around him. And that’s why we need not to allow anybody around to destroy our communication,” he said.

“It will be not helpful and will be destructive. We have to try to find the new model. I want to share with him ideas and I want to hear from him.”

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Throughout the conflict, Mr Zelensky has never said he would cede any occupied Ukrainian territory to Russia, including Crimea, which Russia occupied in February 2014.

In September 2022, Russia unilaterally declared its annexation of areas in and around the Ukrainian oblasts of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia following referendums that were not internationally recognised.

Mr Zelensky’s long-held position is that the territory remains Ukrainian, that Russia’s occupation of the land is unlawful and that Kyiv will not cede any of its territory in order to strike a peace deal.

The interview therefore marks the first time he has suggested that Ukraine could temporarily cede territory in a peace deal, as Russia intensifies its push to seize Ukrainian territory, with Kyiv’s military claiming this week to have inflicted a record 2,030 daily casualties on Moscow’s forces this week.

War analysts say Russia has been gaining territory in recent weeks on Ukraine’s eastern front at the fastest pace since the early days of the war, as both Moscow and Kyiv look to Mr Trump’s return to the White House in January and a possible freezing of the conflict.

Mr Zelensky’s ex-foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said earlier this week that it was inconceivable that he could sign a deal surrendering territory, telling Politico: “The Russians keep the Donbas, they keep Crimea, no Nato membership. Can Zelensky sign? He cannot because of the Constitution. And because it will be the end of Zelensky politically.”

Last month, Mr Zelensky unveiled his “victory plan”, which calls for Ukraine’s unconditional accession to Nato, a refusal to trade Ukraine’s territories currently occupied by Russian forces, and the continuation of the Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.

Mr Zelensky’s latest comments come after the US and Britain allowed Ukraine to use their long-range missiles to strike certain targets within Russia for the first time.

Russia said it had launched a new mid-range hypersonic ballistic missile in response, and revised its nuclear doctrine to lower the threshold for a strike, while carrying out a wave of long-anticipated attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, heaping further pain on civilians as they enter winter.

Sir Richard Moore, the head of Britain’s foreign intelligence service, MI6, warned on Friday that the world is at its most dangerous point for 40 years, accusing Russia of waging a “staggeringly reckless campaign” of sabotage in Europe to undermine support for Ukraine.

The spymaster told an event in France: “The cost of supporting Ukraine is well known but the cost of not doing so would be infinitely higher. If Putin succeeds China would weigh the implications, North Korea would be emboldened and Iran would become still more dangerous.”

“Our security – British, French, European and transatlantic – will be jeopardised,” he added.