Ukraine can’t take away Russian troops from the land they occupy within the east of the nation and Crimea, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has admitted.
Whereas Kyiv would by no means recognise Russia’s rule, he mentioned diplomacy is the one choice to get President Vladimir Putin to withdraw his military.
Ukraine conflict newest
“We cannot give up our territories. The Ukrainian constitution forbids us to do so,” he mentioned.
“De facto, these territories are now controlled by the Russians. We do not have the strength to recover them.
“We will solely depend on diplomatic stress from the worldwide group to drive Putin to take a seat down on the negotiating desk.”
On the identical day, NATO’s chief mentioned he needs to place Ukraine able of power for any future peace talks with Russia.
However Mark Rutte additionally appeared pissed off at hypothesis round when these peace talks would possibly begin, arguing that talking publicly about it performs into Mr Putin’s arms.
“High on the agenda is to make sure that the president, his team in Ukraine, are in the best possible position one day when they decide to start the peace talks,” he mentioned.
The main focus, he added, should be “to do everything now to make sure that when it comes to air defence… we make sure that we provide whatever we can”.
The Kremlin mentioned final week the Ukraine conflict will proceed till the targets set by Mr Putin are achieved by navy motion or by negotiation.
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov mentioned no talks between Moscow and Kyiv are below manner as a result of “the Ukrainian side refuses any negotiations”.
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Zelenskyy on how ceasefire might work
This might then enable him to barter the return of the remaining later “in a diplomatic way”.
“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,” he mentioned.
“We need to do it fast. And then on the [occupied] territory of Ukraine, Ukraine can get them back in a diplomatic way.”
“What I see is him firing more missiles, is him sending more young men to their slaughter, is him wanting to divide European allies at this time,” he mentioned.
“We have to remember that you get nowhere with appeasement. You get nowhere with going to the negotiation table with a weak hand.”
He added the “truth” is Mr Putin is “not a man that you can negotiate with” when he’s “causing such mayhem on European soil”.
Hours earlier, Downing Road mentioned Sir Keir Starmer has spoken to US president-elect Donald Trump and “reiterated the need for allies to stand together with Ukraine”.
