NATO has emboldened Russia with an ill-conceived peace proposal, a top Ukrainian lawmaker fumed as a top Kremlin official reiterated Russian President Vladimir Putin’s desire to seize Kyiv.

"Talking about [us] ceding our territories in exchange for anything only invites aggression,” David Arakhamia, Ukraine's parliamentary majority leader, said Wednesday. “We can already see this in Moscow’s reaction.”

DOUG BURGUM SUPER PAC LAUNCHES IOWA AD TOUTING ECONOMIC BONA FIDES

Arakhamia’s warning reinforced a rebuke from Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba’s team, which shot down a top NATO aide’s suggestion that Ukraine could gain entry into the trans-Atlantic alliance by cutting a deal that would relinquish territory to Russia.

That hypothetical compromise proposal delighted observers in Moscow, though Russian officials insisted that the idea didn’t go far enough.

“It does look like an interesting idea,” Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president and current Kremlin Security Council deputy chairman, wrote on social media. “The only problem is that all of — supposedly — their territories are highly disputable. And to enter the bloc, the [Ukrainian] authorities will have to give up even Kyiv itself, the capital of Ancient Rus.”

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg’s adviser, Stian Jenssen, has apologized for floating the idea.

“My statement about this was part of a larger discussion about possible future scenarios in Ukraine, and I shouldn't have said it that way. It was a mistake,” Jenssen, a NATO private office director, told a Norwegian media outlet in an interview circulated by NATO’s press team on Wednesday. “I think the most important thing now is that we support the Ukrainians. They are in the middle of a counteroffensive.”

Jenssen's initial suggestion on Tuesday, that “a solution could be for Ukraine to give up territory and get NATO membership in return,” was perceived both in Moscow and Kyiv as a sign of flagging Western support.

“These comments prove that our worries have ground, that there are some discussions to use NATO membership as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Russia,” an unnamed Ukrainian official told Politico Europe.

Russian state media put a spotlight on an Italian journalist who opined that Jenssen’s comment implies that "doubts about the Ukrainian offensive have now crept even into the top leadership of NATO.” And other Russian officials insisted that the Kremlin must receive a lengthier list of concessions in any agreement to end the war.

"This is a bogus story that has certain political goals," Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, as if Jenssen’s compromise would shortchange Moscow.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Arakhamia, for his part, cautioned Western officials against the temptation to think there is an easy solution to this war.

“[The Russian officials] like this idea because it legitimizes wars of aggression and undermines international law,” he said, adding that having Ukraine "cede its territories will not bring this war to an end. It can only lead to further conflicts all over the world.”