After a disappointing encounter with US President Donald Trump in Washington DC yesterday, Oct. 17, his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky reminded reporters in front of the White House that the most difficult issue during peace negotiations will be that of territory. He then added that achieving a ceasefire must come first.
“Our position is that first we need ceasefire, so we need to sit and speak and to understand where we are. I think this is the most important first step,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky and his delegation had come to Washington over the course of the week in the hopes of convincing Trump to increase arms deliveries to Ukraine. The Ukrainian side, however, came out more or less empty-hand, as Trump, following a phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, appeared to retract any hints of putting increased pressure on Moscow.
Zelensky avoided any expression of disappointment, and suggested that Trump understands Ukraine’s position on ceasefires and recognizes that the question of territory will be “sensitive.”
“I think the President [Trump] understands that the most difficult question in any kind of negotiations, in any format, will be the issue of territory,” Zelensky said.
The Ukrainian president reiterated that Russians want to “occupy everything,” and “now they want before any kind of ceasefire to make a deal about land, about our territories.”
Earlier in the year Trump had pressed Putin for a ceasefire prior to negotiating, and the Ukrainian side agreed. Putin, however, insisted on first addressing what he described as “root causes” of the problem, which, according to him, went back through the history of Catherine II’s conquest of Crimea and what is now southern Ukraine in the 18th century, even as far as 10th-century Kyivan Rus’.
On March 11, Kyiv agreed to a US-brokered 30-day ceasefire proposal after an 8-hour discussion between high-ranking US and Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia.
Enforcing a ceasefire
Enforcing a ceasefire by means of a strong deterrent to prevent the parties from shooting at each other would be very complex and has already entailed nuanced discussions.
Kyiv would like to have NATO membership or, at the very least, physical security guarantees such as foreign boots on the ground to enforce a deal. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, however, has long rejected Western peacekeepers in Ukraine.
The UK and France – part of as many as 30 countries – have voiced an openness to eventually deploying troops to Ukraine, but well behind the front lines.
Barring the introduction of third-party forces, Ukraine’s only viable security guarantee would result from enhancing its military’s deterrent capabilities.
