Watch: Zelenskyy’s full interview with Sky News
Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested a ceasefire deal could be struck if Ukrainian territory he controls could be taken “under the NATO umbrella” in an interview with Sky News’s chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay.
The Ukrainian president said NATO membership would have to be offered to unoccupied parts of Ukraine to end the “hot phase of the war”, as long as the NATO invitation itself recognises Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders.
You can watch the full interview here…
Russia has right to exercise self defence against Ukraine, says Kim Jong Un
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told Russia’s defence minister today that Moscow is entitled to defend itself in the face of Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons, according to state media.
Mr Kim met Andrei Belousov in Pyongyang today and said the US and the West “made Kyiv authorities attack Russia’s territory with their own long-range strike weapons” and Moscow should take action to make “hostile forces pay the price,” the KCNA news agency said.
The North Korean leader pledged to expand ties with Russia in all areas including military affairs under the strategic partnership he signed with Vladimir Putin in June, which includes a mutual defence agreement, KCNA said.
KCNA made no mention of whether Mr Kim and Mr Belousov discussed North Korea’s current deployment of troops in Russia to help it fight Ukraine.
Analysis: Possible peace deal option would involve concessions by both sides
By Deborah Haynes, security and defence editor
An invitation to join the NATO alliance requires all 32 member states to agree and cannot be extended to a country – like Ukraine – that is at war.
Should the fighting in Ukraine cease, though, there would still be huge resistance from some countries – Germany, Italy and Hungary just to name a few – about offering Kyiv membership to the club given the risk of the conflict with Russia reigniting – a move that would then draw the entire alliance into direct war with Moscow.
This anxiety is why it already took a lot of diplomatic pressure by some of Ukraine’s strongest backers, including the UK, France, the Baltic states and Poland, to persuade all allies merely to sign up to a form of words stating that Ukraine is on an “irreversible path” to joining NATO.
However, experts have mused about a possible peace deal option that would see NATO offer membership to the government and control part of Ukraine, while Russia holds onto the land it’s already seized but without any international legitimacy or recognition.
Such a move would involve concessions by both sides – with Kyiv forced to accept temporarily the loss of territory and Moscow failing to achieve a core war aim of preventing the majority of Ukraine joining the Western alliance.
Even if Volodymyr Zelenskyy might be willing to countenance such an option, Vladimir Putin would have to be forced to feel as though he has no greater chance of success through military force to do the same.
Just as important is what NATO allies think – and given the risk of war with Moscow it is highly unlikely that all member states would sign up to such a plan without significant pressure by whichever nations might be in favour.
If those nations do not include the US then it is hard to imagine such a push having any chance of success.
When do you think this war will end?
Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he will do “everything” to end the war in Ukraine in 2025.
“We can do it,” he says. “But together with Europe, with the United States, of course, and with Ukraine as the main part of this deal.”
He says there must be “big pressure” put on Russia from president-elect Donald Trump and the European Union as well as on strengthening Ukraine, in which case the end of the war “can be quick”.
Zelenskyy adds it will “not be simple” but peace can come in 2025, depending on the decisions of world leaders.
Could it all be for nothing?
Chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay asks Volodymyr Zelenskyy if, given Ukraine has suffered so much, he feels like the country is at a point where it has been for nothing.
“No, this is wrong,” he says. “This is a really sensitive point, but this is wrong.
“Our people did not give their lives for nothing. They gave their lives for the lives of their children and grandchildren and for the lives of all Ukrainians today.
“And these people perform not only their personal but also constitutional duty to defend their country.”
He says those Ukrainians that have died have “already won” as had they not sacrificed “their time, their life, their comfort”, then Putin would have conquered the whole of Ukraine.
“That’s a fact,” adds Zelenskyy. “And nobody would have helped us stand. And after conquering the whole country, he would have destroyed us completely.
“We would just turn into another Belarus, or just another part of the Russian empire.”
Asked about how the war has affected Zelenskyy personally, the Ukrainian president says he has felt the conflict in the same way as his people have.
“We’ve lost a lot, but we’ve found more, we’ve found ourselves,” he says.
“We found our identity. We know who we are 100% and who Russians are 100%.”
On his family, he adds: “Even though we have the distance between us, even though we can’t see each other each moment or each day, we are very close.”
What can NATO or the US give Ukraine to help with lack of soldiers?
Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the problem Ukraine has is equipping its soldiers with adequate weaponry, rather than the number of troops at Kyiv’s disposal.
He says he asked Ukraine’s partners for equipment “more than one year ago” but the message hasn’t been listened to.
Asked why this is, Zelenskyy says: “Some bureaucracy, some decisions, some don’t think is the priority. It’s always the same way during this war.”
He adds that Ukraine is thankful for what it has received in military aid so far, but that the survival of the east of the country – where the majority of fighting is taking place – depends on having equipped brigades.
A recent report coming from the US suggested that Washington was urging Zelenskyy to lower Ukraine’s age of conscription from 25 to 18 to bring in more troops.
Ukraine’s president says of this: “How do you want me to just mobilise young guys and say they don’t know where to go, in which bridge or with which weapon that they will fight.”
Ukraine allies ‘more united’ that Russia’s
Chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay says he was recently in the Sumy region in eastern Ukraine and a Ukrainian soldier had told him that it felt like Russia’s allies were “fairly united” but Ukraine’s “appear to be falling apart”.
Volodymyr Zelenkskyy responds by saying “our allies are more in unity than his allies”.
He notes Iran gave Russia weapons and had “some position in the Middle East”.
And North Korea had given Russia troops.
“These are his real allies,” he adds.
China, he notes, is “more close” to Russia than not.
“But they didn’t give them weapons, this is the difference between China and Iran and China and North Korea,” he adds.
Zelenskyy: NATO membership for unoccupied Ukrainian land could end ‘hot phase’ of war
On NATO and potentially bringing an end to the war, Volodymyr Zelenskyy says membership would have to be offered to unoccupied parts of Ukraine in order to end the “hot phase of the war”.
This would work, he says, as long as the NATO invitation itself recognises Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders, appearing to mean that parts of the country occupied by Russia would fall outside such a deal for the time being.
“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,” he says
“We need to do it fast. And then on the [occupied] territory of Ukraine, Ukraine can get them back in a diplomatic way.”
Zelenskyy says a ceasefire was needed to “guarantee that Putin will not come back” to take more Ukrainian territory.
‘We will work with Trump’
Asked about president-elect Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelenskyy says “we have to work with the new president”.
“The US is our biggest supporter so for us it is very important,” he says.
The Ukrainian leader adds: “Of course, we will work with Trump.
“I want to work with him directly because there are different voices around him.
“We need to not give anybody the chance to destroy our communication. It is not helpful and will be destructive.
“We have to find a new model.”
Asked if had already spoken to Trump, he says he spoke with the incoming US leader in September when he was in New York.
“It was very warm and good,” he adds.
But he says more meetings were now needed with a “real plan where Ukraine is strong”.
‘Putin is a killer and a terrorist,’ says Zelenskyy
Ukraine’s president says Kyiv must be at the same level or stronger than Russia to enter into peace negotiations.
He says it won’t matter what city or country talks are held in or what leaders are present, so long as Ukraine is not in a weaker position than Moscow on the battlefield.
“It’s the minimum,” says Zelenskyy. “Really, we have to be stronger than him, but we have to be very strong, even at the same level with unity of the partners.
“They have to talk with us with a one voice policy. If we speak with Putin, it’s with a plan – we cannot give him the chance to give us an ultimatum.
“He can’t give us an ultimatum because he’s a killer, and he’s a terrorist, and he’s alone in my mind.”
