Ukraine ready to accept frontline ‘freeze’ – top Zelensky aide
One scenario for ending the Ukraine-Russia conflict is for Kiev to accept freezing the hostilities along current battle lines, Mikhail Podoliak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, has said.
Speaking to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica in an interview published on Thursday, the top aide commented on potential concessions Kiev could make for a peace deal.
“Ukraine’s preliminary position is as follows: we understand that one of the basic scenarios to get out of this war is freezing the conflict along the front line,” Podoliak said. Some territories would remain “de facto” Russian, he added.
“De jure no one would recognize those territories as Russian,” and great efforts would need to be exerted through “economic, diplomatic and other tools” to get them back, Podoliak said.
In such a scenario, Kiev would also need to be included in an alliance, Podoliak added. “Not NATO, but an alliance nonetheless,” he said. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly ruled out Ukrainian membership in NATO.
According to Podoliak, the deployment of military contingents to Ukraine from “various countries” is under discussion with around ten countries, particularly France.
Moscow has repeatedly stressed that it will not accept the UK- and France-led initiatives to send forces from NATO countries to Ukraine, warning that such a move could lead to a direct confrontation between Russia and the West.
Russia has insisted that any lasting settlement in the Ukraine conflict must address the core causes of the conflict, address Moscow’s security concerns and recognize the current territorial realities. This includes the status of Crimea and the four new Russian regions: the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, as well as Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions, which voted in referendums to join Russia in 2022.
