Zelensky Reveals Key Conditions for Ceasefire With Russia

Volodymyr Zelensky has emphasized that Ukraine will not make any concessions to Russia to obtain a ceasefire.

The Ukrainian president's comments came after an NBC report that the U.S. and the EU are holding private talks with Kyiv on peace negotiations with Russia. This followed an interview that the commander in chief of Ukraine's armed forces, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, gave The Economist, in which he said that the war was at a "stalemate."

Zelensky has since rejected the general's view and denied reports that Ukraine is under pressure regarding negotiations over the war. Kyiv says its aims are to push Russian troops out of all occupied territory and recapture Crimea, the peninsula seized by Russia in 2014, ahead of the war in Ukraine's Donbas region and President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion in early 2022.

The Ukrainian president reiterated that for the war to end, Kyiv would require "the restoration of territorial integrity, rights and the freedom of citizens. Another stage of the war is the restoration of justice."

"The restoration of sovereignty is the main principle for ending the hot stage of the war," he said. "Everything will end in peace."

However, at the moment Russia "simply doesn't want it and imagines the world in its own way," Zelensky told students at Anáhuac Querétaro University, according to news outlet RBK Ukraina.

The Ukrainian leader did not begrudge those calling for a ceasefire but reiterated his point that Putin would not stop with Ukraine and that "people in the world must realize if we are victims we will not be the last ones."

Newsweek has contacted the Kremlin by email for comment.

With the war in its 20th month, Zelensky has admitted that it is an uphill battle to continue securing military and financial aid from allies amid mounting concerns about war fatigue and the world's attention on the Israel-Hamas war.

The U.S. and other Western allies have pledged continued support for Ukraine, but the aid the West is giving Ukraine is under scrutiny in some countries, especially the U.S., where it has become a hot issue in the GOP presidential race.

This all comes as Ukraine's deputy prime minister for European integration, Olha Stefanishyna, told a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday that her country should be able to complete the process of joining the EU within two years.

The previous day, the European Commission recommended that EU accession talks could start—a long-held goal for Kyiv, which applied for membership in February 2022, just after the war started.

Ukraine was granted candidacy status in June, and the commission said it had met four of the seven criteria it needs to begin talks, which require a final vote among member states.

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