'Ukraine cannot take back territory occupied by Russia', Zelenskyy admits, as he calls for talks with Putin
18 December 2024, 22:04
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has admitted that Ukraine cannot retake the territories that Russia has annexed.
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The Ukrainian president said that the only way that Crimea and eastern Ukraine could be brought back under Kyiv's control was via diplomacy.
His comments mark a change from his previous stance, in which he had declared that Ukraine could reconquer the territory ceded in 2014 and since the 2022 invasion.
Mr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday: “We cannot give up our territories. The Ukrainian constitution forbids us to do so.
"De facto, these territories are now controlled by the Russians. We do not have the strength to recover them,” he told Le Parisien, a French newspaper.
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“We can only count on diplomatic pressure from the international community to force Putin to sit down at the negotiating table."
Russia took Crimea, a prized peninsula jutting from the south of Ukraine into the Black Sea, via a dubious referendum ten years ago.
Kremlin-linked forces also took much of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine in 2014, and most of the area is now under Russian control.
Russia has also conquered much of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, without seizing the main cities in either. The Kremlin has said that both regions are legally Russian, a claim that Ukraine and its Western allies reject.
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Speaking in November, Mr Zelenskyy said that he would be prepared to end the "hot phase" of the war in exchange for NATO membership.
This is unlikely, given that if a NATO member is attacked, other members of the alliance are bound to defend it. NATO members do not want to be in a direct conflict with Russia.
It comes as Donald Trump prepares to take office as US president in January.
He is intent on striking a peace deal between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy's warring nations as soon as he comes to the White House.
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Mr Trump said he disagreed "very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia" in an interview with Time Magazine, but insisted he would not abandon Kyiv.
Speaking during a visit to Norway this week, Sir Keir Starmer warned it was time for Kyiv's allies to "double down" on the financial commitments, sanctions and the training they were providing to Ukraine.
"It's important that we put Ukraine in the strongest possible position if there are to be negotiations, and even if there aren't to be negotiations," he said.
"But it would be a big mistake, in my view, to take our eye off the ball and not ensure that Ukraine is in the strongest possible position, which is why we've been doubling down on this at many of the international meetings we've had with our allies to discuss this."
