Ukraine President Volodimir Zelensky said on Sunday that negotiations with Russia for the end of the war may have as its starting point the current front line, signaling for the first time that part of the busy Ukrainian territory could be used as a bargaining currency for a possible peace agreement.
“We need real negotiations, which means we can start where the front line is now,” Zelensky said, after meeting with European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen in Brussels.
The declaration marks a relevant change in the hitherto inflexible Ukrainian posture regarding the total recovery of the territories invaded and illegally attached by Moscow.
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Flexibility occurs two days after the Alaska, ended without a ceasefire agreement, but with indications from the former US President that a pact could involve territorial assignments.
Pressure by agreement and strategic isolation
Zelensky traveled to the European Union headquarters in an attempt to reorganize Western support to Ukraine, given the growing sense of political isolation, especially after Trump assumes a conciliatory tone regarding Kremlin’s demands.
Former American and current president of the White House has been referring to a “permanent peace agreement”-not a temporary ceasefire-a condition closer to the Russian narrative. Trump has openly defended that a war pact could involve territorial exchanges, a hypothesis that pleases Kremlin.
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Possible exchanges on the map
Russia controls about 400 km² in recent areas occupied in the Sumi and Kharkiv regions in northern Ukraine, as well as most of the provinces of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporíjia and Kherson, as well as Crimea, attached in 2014 and considered non -negotiable by Moscow.
Donetsk remains partially under Ukrainian rule – with approximately 6,600 km² still controlled by Kiev – but has suffered Russian advances in recent months, with threats to strategic cities.
According to military analysts, a possible agreement of agreement could involve the delivery of all Donetsk to Russia in exchange for the return of the peripheral areas of Sumi and Kharkiv, poorly strategic for Moscow.
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Lugansk is already under total Russian control, and Zaporíjia and Kherson could be partially divided or “frozen” in the present state, consolidating a new border.
Zelensky talks about pause, not surrender
Even with the rhetorical retreat, Zelensky reiterated that he still seeks a break in the conflict as a step prior to a permanent agreement. The Ukrainian President avoided speaking directly in definitive assignments, but the simple recognition of the front line as a negotiation basis already represents a concrete change in the Ukrainian approach.
The expectation now turns to this Monday (18), where European leaders will seek to align positions with Trump in an attempt to avoid bilateral agreement between US and Russia that further weakens Kiev’s position.
