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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he’s open to freezing the war with Russia along the current front lines on the condition that Ukraine doesn’t give up any territory it still controls.

Getting into it: During an interview on “Fox & Friends” Wednesday, host Brian Kilmeade asked Zelensky if he’d accept a deal that freezes the fighting where it is, leaving Ukraine with about 75% or more of its territory, and he said yes. He called a ceasefire the minimum Ukraine needs from Russia, and said the next step would be asking Trump and Europe to guarantee Ukraine’s security. “Right now, we have to freeze, and I think this is a real way to end this war,” Zelensky said. “We call it ceasefire or ‘stop killing’ like President Trump called it. Freeze and stop.”

In a CNN interview Thursday, Zelensky made clear Ukraine won’t hand over the rest of the Donbas or any other land it holds, and that Kyiv will never accept Russia’s claim to the land it occupies.

The comments came after Zelensky met with US envoy Steve Witkoff in Oslo on Tuesday, with Jared Kushner joining remotely. Witkoff then spent three hours with Putin in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, and Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov said Putin signed off “in principle” on restarting three-way negotiations with the US and Ukraine sometime after Nov. 10. Russia also agreed to release Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired American teacher imprisoned in 2024 on mercenary charges he denied, with Witkoff calling Putin a “humanitarian” for the move.

Russia has repeatedly rejected ceasefire proposals, with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov saying last week there will be no ceasefire that lets Ukraine “pump” itself full of weapons. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the fight is now focused on the rest of the Donbas, adding there have been “some creative ideas” to resolve it.

This all comes as US-Ukraine relations have taken a serious hit over the past few weeks after Trump struck a deal to buy Russian diesel and suspended some Russia sanctions weeks after signing a new sanctions law named for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, with Trump defending the move by saying “you don’t put sanctions on” during delicate negotiations.