Zelenskyy puts NATO membership condition for ceasefire with Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy voiced his readiness to end the "hot phase" of the conflict with Russia in exchange for Ukraine's membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported on Friday.

"If we want to stop the hot phase of the war, we need to put the territory of Ukraine that is under our control under the NATO umbrella. We need to do it fast," Zelenskyy was cited as saying.

Later, Ukraine could get back the territories, which are now controlled by Russia, in a diplomatic way, Zelenskyy said, noting that a NATO invitation should recognize Ukraine's internationally recognized borders.

Zelenskyy stressed that a ceasefire is necessary to guarantee that Russia "does not return" to seize more Ukrainian territory.

Meanwhile, the Russian side seems to have a very low-profile response toward this.

The Kremlin has so far been silent on Zelenskyy's remarks.

Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the International Affairs Committee of the Russian State Duma, commented in his Telegram channel, "Moscow will no longer allow Western countries to arm Kyiv under the guise of an agreement."

He called on Ukrainian politicians to abandon their ambition to join NATO. "Kyiv is seeking to join NATO; this is the key to moving forward, not the end of the war. The idea of freezing the conflict is also unacceptable," he said.

On Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry said that in the fall of 2024, the Russian army liberated 88 settlements in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporozhye and Kharkiv regions, as well as the Kursk region that Ukraine had launched an incursion into earlier this year.