By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent
MOSCOW/KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has, for the first time, publicly suggested bringing Ukrainian territory he controls under the NATO military alliance umbrella while all Russian-occupied areas could remain under Moscow’s control until a diplomatic settlement is reached.
In comments analyzed by Worthy News early Saturday, he said it is an attempt to stop the “hot stage” of the war with Russia, Europe’s bloodiest since World War Two.
Zelenskyy stressed that such a proposal has “never been considered” by Ukraine because it has never “officially” been offered. “If we want to stop the hot stage of the war, we should take under the NATO umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control. That’s what we need to do fast, and then Ukraine can get back the other part of its territory diplomatically,” he told broadcaster Sky News.
Former British Ambassador to Russia Tony Brenton said Ukraine’s Zelenskyy was trying to reach a “freeze in the fighting where the lines actually currently are” ahead of U.S. President-elect Donald J. Trump’s return to the White House.
Zelenskyy is “playing a sophisticated game,” Brenton argued. “He knows that [Donald] Trump is about to descend on him and on Russia,” the ex-ambassador stressed.
“He is already arranging to have something to offer Trump on Trump’s mission to bring the war to an end,” Brenton added.
FREEZING FIGHTING
“What he is suggesting in many ways is bringing us much closer to the obvious target area which is a freeze in the fighting where the lines actually currently are. And then an eventual negotiation about who retains which bit of territory and then security guarantees for Ukraine in the course of that ceasefire,” analyzed Brenton
Trump claimed he could end the armed conflict “within 24 hours” and showed reluctance to support Ukraine militarily.
However, the head of Britain’s foreign intelligence service MI6 urged Trump in recent days to continue supporting Kyiv – saying that abandoning Ukraine would jeopardize British, European, and American security and lead to “infinitely higher” costs in the long term.
Richard Moore, giving a rare speech, suggested that Putin “would not stop” at Ukraine unless faced with severe military force and tough negotiations.
Despite talks on a possible ceasefire deal and follow-up negotiations, battles raged Saturday, one of many bloody days in this nearly three-year-long conflict since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Ukraine’s air force confirmed Saturday that the country had come under attack from ten Russian drones, of which eight were shot down over the capital, Kyiv, and the Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kherson regions.
DRONE ‘RETURNS’
One drone reportedly returned to Russian-occupied territory, while the final drone disappeared from radar, which experts said was often a sign of the use of electronic defenses.
However, Russia faced challenges too: In Moscow, the Russian Defense Ministry said 11 Ukrainian drones “had been shot down” by the country’s air defense systems.
The mayor of Sochi, Andrey Proshunin, and the head of Russia’s Dagestan region, Sergey Melikov, both in Russia’s southwest, said that drones “had been destroyed” in their regions overnight. No casualties were reported.
Yet it underscored that Ukraine, with NATO’s support, can reach targets far into Russia.
Additionally, Ukraine has asked Latin American parliamentarians and diplomats to assist in its defense in the war with Russia.
Representatives of Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, El Salvador, Ecuador, Peru, and Costa Rica arrived in Kyiv for a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, pictured showed Saturday.
BROADER CONFLICT?
Yet the escalating tensions have raised concerns in nearby countries about an internationalization of the Russia-Ukraine war amid reports that North Korea could send as many as 100,000 troops to help Moscow’s military.
Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov said on a visit to Pyongyang, North Korea, that cooperation between the two countries is growing “in all areas.” The country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, vowed the North will “invariably support” Moscow’s war.
That was to add to worries in Poland, where Prime Minister Donald Tusk visited his country’s border with the Russian region of Kaliningrad to inspect the construction of military fortifications along the eastern frontier, calling it “an investment in peace.”
Tusk’s visit on Saturday comes a month before Poland will take over the rotating presidency of the 27-member European Union from Hungary.
Back home, the Kremlin on Saturday cast the armed conflict in Ukraine as a battleground against the West and its values.
Police in Moscow raided multiple bars early Saturday and detained the director of a gay travel agency under laws criminalizing “LGBT propaganda,” state media reported.
Critics view it as Moscow’s attempt to distract attention from its war’s deadly consequences and the related plunging value of the Russian currency, the ruble, which prompted at least some Chinese exporters to suspend sales.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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