Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Fox News on Wednesday that he would accept a ceasefire that freezes the war along the current front lines.
Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade asked whether he would take a deal that freezes everything where it is, with Ukraine keeping 75% or more of its land. “Yes,” Zelensky said. “We have to freeze,” he said, calling it “a real way to end this war.” He added: “Freeze and stop.”
NEW: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tells @kilmeade he would accept a peace deal that freezes the war along the current frontlines, calling it a realistic way to stop the fighting.
He says Ukraine would then seek security guarantees from President Trump and European allies to ensure peace and security.
“We call it ceasefire or stop killing like President Trump called it. Freeze and stop. And of course this is minimum what we need from Russia today.” | @foxandfriends
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 21, 2026
Zelensky said a freeze is “the minimum of what we need from Russia today.” Ukraine would then go to President Trump and European leaders for security guarantees, which he called “most important.”
With Russian President Vladimir Putin having floated a meeting between Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping and himself to determine peace terms for Ukraine, Zelensky said: “But don’t speak about us without us, please.”
[NOTE: Following a meeting with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said Wednesday that Russia could resume talks with Ukraine, but that Ukraine’s leadership had to make “necessary decisions,” according to Russian state media, per CBS News.]
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) was among those objecting to the Putin-and-Xi summit that Trump has said he’s open to. Cassidy told SiriusXM’s The Julie Mason Show the idea is “foolhardy” and “morally wrong.”
“To not include Ukraine is nonsense,” he said. “Ukrainians have got to be part of any peace deal.”
Reagan and Lindsey would be ashamed of this.
https://t.co/F1xNiPZiet— U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (@SenBillCassidy) October 19, 2026
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told CNN the same: “Putin is playing President Trump like a fiddle.” He called the summit idea “absurd.”
Republican Senator Thom Tillis:
“Putin is playing President Trump like a fiddle. And history is not going to look good on an America that failed to rise up and defend the Western world.” https://t.co/JlUVR1IM23
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) October 20, 2026
Cassidy’s warning was blunt. “Russia is trying to kill Americans around the world, covertly and overtly.”