Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has once again spoken out about the prospects for the return of territories occupied by Russia. In his latest statement, he emphasized that Ukraine does not have the ability to return its lands solely by military means, although the struggle for sovereignty continues.
"We cannot give up our territories. The Constitution of Ukraine prohibits us from doing so. De facto, these territories are now controlled by the Russians. We do not have the strength to return them. We can only count on diplomatic pressure from the international community to force Putin to sit at the negotiating table," the president said in an interview with Le Parisien.
When asked about his willingness to sit down at the negotiating table with Putin, he did not rule out such a possibility. But he said that a "peace plan" must first be developed.
"It's not who is in front of you that matters. It's what state you're in when you're negotiating. I don't think we're in a weak position, but we're not in a strong position either. Are we in NATO? We don't know. Will we be part of the European Union? Yes, in the future, but when? Sitting down at the negotiating table with Putin under such conditions would mean giving him the right to decide everything in our part of the world. First, we need to develop a model, an action plan, or a peace plan, call it what you want. Then we can present it to Putin or, more broadly, to the Russians," Zelensky said.
The day before, Zelensky told Trump that he did not want to "rush" to end the war.
