NEWSMAX -- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday he would consider a ceasefire deal to end the “hot phase of the war” against Russia in exchange for NATO membership of unoccupied territories, saying the occupied territories could be returned later diplomatically.

In an interview with Sky News, Zelenskyy said it’s a scenario that could work provided the NATO invitation recognizes Ukraine’s internationally accepted borders.

"If we want to stop the hot phase of the war, we need to take under the NATO umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control," Zelenskyy told Sky News. “We need to do it fast. And then on the [occupied] territory of Ukraine, Ukraine can get them back in a diplomatic way."

It’s a proposal that "no one has ever offered ... to us officially,” Zelenskyy said.

Further, Zelenskyy said he would need assurances that Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t come back for more of Ukraine. NATO, he said, should “immediately” cover Ukrainian territories it still controls, “otherwise [Putin] will come back.”

Zelenskyy’s interview comes the same day as a report that Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha urged his NATO counterparts to issue an invitation at a meeting in Brussels next week to Kyiv to join the military alliance. In a letter, Sybiha’s renewed the push to secure an invitation to join NATO, an effort that would show Putin that he could not achieve one of his main goals — preventing Kyiv from becoming a NATO member.

Zelenskyy’s interview with Sky News is a departure from previous statements he’s made, once saying Ukraine "will never exchange any status for any of our territories,” the Kyiv Independent reported.

However, Zelenskyy’s new position could be a direct result of President-elect Donald Trump’s victory earlier this month.

"We have to work with the new president" in order to "have the biggest supporter,” Zelenskyy told Sky News.