Zelensky says he’d be open to freezing front lines to end Russia war

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday said he would be open to freezing the front line of his forces to allow the war with Russia to end and keep much of Ukraine’s territory intact.

“Right now, we have to freeze, and I think this is a real way to end this war,” Zelensky told “Fox & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade on Fox News after he said he would freeze the front line. “We call [for the] ceasefire, or stop killing stuff, like President Trump called it. Freeze and stop. And, of course, this is the minimum of what we need from Russia today.”

Zelensky said Ukraine will go to Trump and European leaders to ask for security guarantees, which he said were “most important.”

The Ukrainian leader resumed strikes on Russian oil refineries after Trump announced an energy ceasefire between the warring countries earlier this month, claiming they were in retaliation for Russian strikes shortly after the announcement.

Zelensky’s remarks preceded Russian President Vladimir Putin’s agreement on Wednesday to resume trilateral negotiations with Washington and Kyiv to end the nearly five-year-long war, a Kremlin spokesperson Yuri Ushakov told The Associated Press after a three-hour meeting between Putin and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff.

Ushakov said Putin agreed to resume trilateral talks “in principle” after Nov. 10.

It was during this meeting that Witkoff announced that Russia agreed to release U.S. teacher Stephen Hubbard, who was sentenced to prison in 2024 after Russian prosecutors accused him of fighting alongside Ukraine against Russia as a mercenary, a claim Hubbard denied.

Republican senators have panned the idea of Trump meeting with Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping to cut a peace deal that Ukraine would be forced to accept. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) stressed that Ukraine should be part of the trilateral talks to end the war, saying Kyiv’s absence in the talks would be “nonsense.”

The push to end the conflict frayed in recent weeks as Trump, seeking to address the energy shortage instigated by the U.S.-Israeli conflict in Iran, struck a deal with the Kremlin to allow diesel into the U.S. and waived sanctions on Russia.

Bipartisan lawmakers blasted the waiver, as Trump said it “immediately” went into effect weeks after he signed a legislative package that placed further sanctions on Russia, which was passed by Congress in a bill named after the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

They also lambasted the diesel deal, with Zelensky advising the U.S. not to make a “historic mistake” by supporting Russia.