The key facts

  • In an interview with Fox News, Zelensky agreed to a ceasefire along the front line and to an agreement leaving 75% of the territories with Kyiv
  • The Ukrainian leader rejected the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the territory of Donbas
  • Moscow previously stated that it does not consider freezing the conflict along the line of contact

Zelensky's statement

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with Fox News that Ukraine would agree to a freeze of the conflict with Russia along the front line. According to him, the point is to remain in one's positions and move to diplomacy, and he called a ceasefire with the help of the US president an excellent idea.

Answer on a peace agreement

When asked by a journalist whether Ukraine would support a peace agreement that envisages freezing the front line while leaving Kyiv with 75% of its former territories, Zelensky answered in the affirmative. At the same time, he rejected the possibility of withdrawing the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the territory of Donbas.

Moscow's position

In August, aide to the Russian president Yuri Ushakov noted that Moscow's position on the Ukrainian conflict does not provide for its freeze along the line of contact. In September, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that the West seeks not to settle the conflict but to freeze it, which would preserve a threat near Russia's borders.

Public opinion

According to a survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), the results of which were published in October, 69% of Ukrainians are ready to support a ceasefire along the current line of contact without Kyiv's legal recognition of the lost territories.