The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky he declared yesterday Friday that he is ready to accept guarantees of protection of his country from the NATO initially for the Ukrainian territories controlled by Kiev, in order to “end the hot phase of the war” with Russia which has been going on for 33 months.

Almost three years after the Russian invasion, his return Donald Trump at the White House in January amid an escalating conflict following Moscow’s launch of a new powerful missile against Ukraine, have again brought the question of a possible ceasefire to the fore.

Zelensky in his interview on the television network Sky News he hinted that he is prepared to wait before recapturing the areas of Ukraine controlled by the Russian military – nearly a fifth of Ukraine – if such a deal can provide security for the rest of the country and end the conflict.

“No one suggested to us that one or the other part of Ukraine should join NATO. The fact is that this is a solution that would end the hot phase of the war, because we can simply make the part of Ukraine under our control a member of NATO,” Zelensky said.

“If we want to put an end to the hot phase of the war, we should put under the auspices of NATO the areas of Ukraine that we control,” explained the Ukrainian president.

“We need to do this quickly and then Ukraine will be able to recover the other part of its territory through the diplomatic channel,” he added.

Kiev has so far ruled out ceding territory in exchange for peace, while the Russian president Vladimir Putin demands that the Ukrainian army withdraw from more territory and denies Ukraine’s membership in the NATO.

OR Moscow controls about 18% of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea which it annexed in 2014. Russia also annexed the provinces Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhiaalthough it does not fully control them.

Russian forces have been advancing in recent weeks at unprecedented speed – at rates equivalent to the first weeks of the 2022 invasion -, steadily making territorial gains in the face of a weakened Ukrainian army.

The conflict further escalated in recent days with its massive strikes of Russia against Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Besides, Putin threatened to hit “decision-making centers” in Kyiv with the new missile Oreshnik in response to Ukraine’s use of Western weapons to strike targets deep inside Russian territory.

The newly elected president of the USA Trump has criticized US aid to Ukraine and said during his election campaign that he could end the conflict within hours, although he did not specify how.

But Zelensky insisted that any NATO proposal for his country’s membership in the Alliance should concern all of Ukraine. “But the invitation should be made to Ukraine based on its internationally recognized borders. You cannot extend an invitation to only one part of the country,” he stressed.

His statements yesterday, on the other hand, imply that he would accept the protection of NATO – such as Article 5 which provides that an attack against one member country is an attack against the entire alliance – to only concern the territories controlled by Kiev.

“If we are talking about a truce, we need guarantees that Putin will not return,” he stressed.

The Russian president has already asked Kiev not to join NATO if it wants a peace deal.

In this context of escalation of the conflict in the last two weeks Zelenskiy had a series of telephone communications with Western leaders, among them the British Prime Minister Keir Starmerthe French president Emmanuel Macron and the German chancellor Olaf Solz.

The US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken he also spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sibiha yesterday Friday to inform him “about the American objectives regarding the continuous support of Ukraine”, as stated by the Matthew Miller State Department spokesman.

Outgoing US President Joe Biden’s administration is stepping up support for Ukraine after Trump’s election victory, offering it more weapons and allowing Kiev to use US-made missiles to strike deep into Russian territory.