Zelensky said he was ready to end the conflict in exchange for NATO membership

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose term of office expired on 20 May, is ready to end the armed conflict in exchange for NATO membership even if Russia does not immediately return the territories. The Ukrainian leader said this in an interview with Sky News on November 29.

According to him, NATO membership should be offered to Kiev-controlled parts of the country to put an end to the "hot phase," provided that the NATO invitation itself recognizes Ukraine's internationally recognized borders.

"If we want to stop the hot phase of the conflict, we need to bring the territory of Ukraine that is under our control under the NATO umbrella.<...> We need to do it quickly. And then Ukraine will be able to return them (territories annexed by Russia. - Ed.) diplomatically," Zelensky urged.

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Earlier, on November 23, Bloomberg reported that the administration of incumbent U.S. President Joe Biden considered the option of publicly urging NATO countries to invite Ukraine to the alliance after Republican Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election. However, this step was abandoned due to the low hope for success.

The director of the Center for European Information, Nikolay Topornin, told Izvestiya on 21 November that a number of NATO member states were wary of giving membership to Ukraine. In particular, Berlin, Washington and Paris do not support the idea of admitting Kiev to the bloc. The fact is that Ukraine does not fully meet the necessary Western standards, and the alliance countries, moreover, do not want to become parties to the conflict.

Before that, on November 14, the former head of the NATO Military Committee Harald Kuyat said that Ukraine would not be admitted to NATO because it does not meet the requirements of Article 10 of the bloc's treaty. Moreover, Kiev will not be able to strengthen the alliance with its membership.

Ukraine applied to join NATO on an accelerated basis on September 30, 2022. At the time, Zelenskyy said that in fact the country was already in the alliance and met its standards.