If a ceasefire is reached in Ukraine, the West is considering “exiling” Volodymyr Zelensky to London, writes Do Rzeczy, citing a report out of the Spanish daily El Mundo via government sources in Kyiv.
A rumor has been circulating in diplomatic circles in the Ukrainian capital for two weeks that if a ceasefire occurs, the West will convince Zelensky to “exile” himself to the U.K. and presidential elections will be held in Ukraine.
European peacekeeping forces, mainly troops from Great Britain and France, would then be deployed in Ukraine. Kyiv could also count on “rapid” accession to the European Union and aid for the country’s post-war reconstruction.
Ukraine had a bad November, with Russia occupying the largest amount of territory in Ukraine since March 2022, mainly in the east of the country, near Pokrovsk, according to experts from the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
The group says Moscow has occupied a total of 68,500 square kilometers since the beginning of the war, or about 19 percent of Ukraine’s entire pre-2014 territory, including the annexed Crimea and part of Donbas.
Senior aides of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump have met with officials from Kyiv, as the incoming president has made ending the conflict a top priority of his administration, while Zelensky is clearly tired of war.
Head of MI6, Richard Moore, raised alarm bells over the dangerous situation the world is currently facing. After meeting with his French counterpart, Nicholas Lerner, last week, he told the press, “Nicholas and I are in no doubt about the stakes in Ukraine: If Putin is allowed to succeed in reducing Ukraine to a vassal state, he will not stop there.”
At the same time, the U.S. is pushing Ukraine to begin recruitment of 18-25 year olds to bolster Ukraine’s armed forces, but there are concerns about the country’s demographic future should his young cohort be sent to the front.