Valeriy Zaluzhnyi attends an interfaith prayer service for peace in Ukraine in London, 24 February 2025. Photo: EPA / Neil Hall
The freezing of the frontlines in eastern Ukraine is the scenario in which the war in Ukraine is most likely to end, former Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) commander-in-chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said in a column for Ukrainian independent media outlet Liga on Saturday.
Zaluzhnyi, who has served as Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Kingdom since he was removed from his post as head of the AFU by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February 2024, said that Ukraine could still make peace with Russia even if it were unable to achieve “absolute victory” in the war.
Noting that wars did “not always end with the victory of one side and the defeat of the other”, Zaluzhnyi said that Ukraine's victory could only be secured through “the collapse of the modern Russian empire”, while only “the complete occupation of Ukraine” would constitute Kyiv’s defeat, adding that all other options would entail the “continuation of the war in another form”.
"We Ukrainians, of course, strive for complete victory. But we cannot rule out the possibility of a long-term cessation of the war,” he wrote, adding that “peace offers a chance for political change, profound reforms, full recovery, economic growth, and the return of our citizens.”
Zaluzhnyi, who headed the AFU for four years before his dismissal, is a highly respected figure in Ukraine and is widely seen as a potential rival to Zelensky with his own ambitions for the presidency.
His comments come at the end of a terrible week for Zelensky, whose chief of staff resigned on Friday after his office and home were searched by Ukraine’s two powerful anti-corruption agencies, and who has come under pressure from US President Donald Trump in the past week to accept a peace plan that overwhelmingly favours Russia.
On Saturday, Zelensky announced that a Ukrainian delegation had departed Kyiv for the United States in order to continue discussions about the US peace plan. “Diplomacy remains active,” Zelensky said. “The American side is demonstrating a constructive approach, and in the coming days it is feasible to flesh out the steps to determine how to bring the war to a dignified end.”
