Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday he would accept a deal that freezes the war along its current front lines, calling the approach the “real way” to bring the fighting to a close.
Zelensky made the comment during an interview on Fox News’s Fox & Friends, where host Brian Kilmeade asked directly whether he would agree to halt the fighting where the battlefield now sits.
“Yes, right now we have to freeze, and I think this is real way to end this war,” Zelensky said. “We call it a ceasefire or ‘stop killing,’ like President Trump called it. Freeze and stop. And of course, this is the minimum what we need from Russia today.”
Kilmeade framed the question around a potential settlement in which Ukraine would hold onto 75 percent or more of its territory. Zelensky agreed, but said any freeze would have to come with firm backing from the West.
“Then, of course, we will go to [the U.S.] president and to Europeans, and we will ask for security guarantees,” he said.
Zelensky described the proposal as a starting point for negotiations rather than a final territorial settlement, emphasizing that stopping the killing should come before talks on a lasting peace deal.
The interview aired a day after Zelensky met with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff in Oslo, Norway. Also present were Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, and representatives from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Poland, the European Union, and NATO. Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, joined the meeting by video link.
Witkoff flew directly from Oslo to St. Petersburg on Wednesday for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, bringing an updated framework proposal shaped with input from Ukraine and its European allies. Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev met Witkoff at the airport, according to two sources who spoke with Reuters.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said his understanding was that the Oslo talks had been “positive,” with “nothing unexpected” or “surprising.”
Zelensky also said he would be willing to stop Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries if Moscow reciprocated, and he repeated his call for a three-way summit with Putin and Trump — a format the Kremlin has so far refused to accept.
Trump has been pushing both sides toward a settlement after months of stalled talks, with his envoys moving between Kyiv’s European backers and Moscow to put together a workable framework. Zelensky complained last week that the administration’s decision to pause Russian sanctions would only embolden Putin.
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