President Zelenskyy has said he is willing to 'compromise' in exchange for Russian ceasefire, as Putin's invasion rages on.
Zelenskyy is still hoping for direct talks with Vladimir Putin, after he remains unsure if Russia has any plans to stop the war.
On Monday 21 March, in an interview with Ukrainian television channels, Mr Zelenskyy said he would be willing to not seek NATO membership: "It’s a compromise for everyone: for the West, which doesn’t know what to do with us with regard to NATO, for Ukraine, which wants security guarantees, and for Russia, which doesn’t want further NATO expansion."
The Ukraine president also said that Kyiv will be willing to discuss the status of Crimea and the eastern Donbas region held by Russian-backed separatists.
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On Saturday, 19 March, Mr Zelenskyy issued a message to Putin saying that 'it's time to talk'.
He said: "Negotiations about peace, about security for us in Ukraine, should be substantial, fair and without delays.
"This is the only chance, the only chance for Russia to reduce the harm from its own mistakes.
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"And I want everyone to hear me now, especially in Moscow. It’s time to meet. Time to talk. It’s time to restore territorial integrity and justice for Ukraine.
"Otherwise, Russia’s losses will be such that it will take you several generations to recover."
He added: "This is a totally deliberate tactic.
"They have a clear order to do absolutely everything to make the humanitarian catastrophe in Ukrainian cities an ‘argument’ for Ukrainians to cooperate with the occupiers.
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"This is a war crime. I am guided by the assessments given by our negotiators.
"They say that the negotiations are not easy for obvious reasons. But nevertheless, there is some hope of reaching a compromise," he said, according to Reuters.
Katie Laatikainen, a political science professor at Adelphi University in New York, told The Independent that keeping Kyiv ‘would be presented as something of a victory, because the general consensus before the war was that the Russian campaign would be quick’.
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Professor Peter Rutland, who teaches Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, added: "Control over Kyiv is an important symbol for both sides.”
That doesn’t mean surrendering other territory, though.
Rutland told Newsweek: "Whether the capital falls or not, the problem for Zelenskyy remains that large parts of Ukraine will be under Russian occupation.”
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Topics: Volodymyr Zelensky, Vladimir Putin, Russia, Ukraine
Anish Vij