As the Financial Times was able to find out, Western political circles are increasingly discussing a scenario according to which Ukraine will receive guarantees to join NATO, but will refuse to continue waging war with the Russian Federation in order to de-occupy its territories. Volodymyr Zelenskyi's team currently rejects such an idea.
Points of attention
- Volodymyr Zelenskyi's team is not going to stop the war for the territories occupied by Russia.
- The West is considering the possibility of leaving a certain part of the occupied territories under the control of the Russian Federation to end the war.
- The "West German model" for Ukraine has been discussed for over a year and a half.
The West wants the war to end as soon as possible
Journalists explain that Ukraine can get the long-awaited security guarantees, but for this, Kyiv needs to agree that Moscow will retain de facto, but not de jure, control over the occupied territory.
What is important to understand is that Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyi's team is not going to recognize Russia's sovereignty over the occupied territories.
The West is also aware of the fact that this could provoke a new wave of Russian aggression and be a serious blow to international stability.
Instead, a "tacit agreement" is assumed that these lands will have to be returned somehow in the future by diplomatic means. Land concessions for NATO membership may be the only game in town, one Western diplomat told us, but it remains a taboo for Ukrainians, at least publicly, the publication emphasizes.
The "West German model" for Ukraine has been discussed for a long time
As you know, West Germany has been in NATO since 1955, although East Germany remained under the control of Moscow until 1989.
According to journalists, discussions in the West regarding such a scenario for Ukraine have been going on for about a year and a half.
This idea has already been mentioned by former US special representative in Ukraine Kurt Volker, former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and the current president of the Czech Republic, Peter Pavel.
I do not think that a complete restoration of control over the entire territory is a necessary condition. If there will be a demarcation, even an administrative border, then we can consider [it] temporary and accept Ukraine into NATO on the territory that it will control at that time, — said the president of the Czech Republic recently.
