Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his country lacked the capability to reclaim its former Donbas and Crimea provinces occupied by Russia.
Speaking to readers of the French newspaper Le Parisien via videoconference on the evening of December 17, Zelensky was asked if he was willing to make compromises and cede land. The Ukrainian President replied: “We cannot give up our territories. It is the Ukrainian Constitution that prohibits us from doing so.”
“De facto, these territories are now controlled by the Russians. We don’t have the strength to win them back. We can only count on diplomatic pressure from the international community to force [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to the negotiating table,” he added.
Zelensky repeated his belief that Ukraine could only count on diplomatic pressure from the international community to force Putin to enter negotiations.
“I am surprised: Why does the West, which supports us, take tweezers with it? Why, from the beginning of the war, were we not massively armed with weapons?,” he added.
“My speech may seem insolent. But I have the impression that everyone is terrorised by Putin’s Russia. He is in a state of impunity. We need a strong America and Europe to put pressure on Putin and stop this war.”
Ukraine’s official policy has been to seek the return of all territories occupied by Russia since 2014, including Crimea and parts of the Donbas region. On April 15 this year, the Ukrainian parliament declared Crimea a territory “temporarily occupied” by Russia.
The international community, including NATO members, has largely supported Kyiv’s position.
In late September 2022, Russia annexed four Ukrainian provinces after having organised referendums on doing so. These were regarded as a sham by the West, which did not recognise the annexations.
Until now, Zelensky has always maintained that no peace was possible until his country regained Crimea and Donbas.
Putin had previously outlined the conditions for resolving the conflict in Ukraine, which included the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from Donbas and Novorossiya, Kyiv’s not joining NATO, the lifting of Western sanctions against Russia and the establishment of a neutral, non-nuclear status for Ukraine.
Talking to Le Parisien audience, Zeklensky said the Ukrainian people had “chosen to be a fully-fledged state of the European Union”.
“Why would Putin interfere in our choice? The time of colonialism is over.”
He said there were no guarantees that the Russian leader would not return to attack Ukraine again if it remained outside NATO.
Zelensky said Ukrainians were grateful to their international partners but that the processes of co-operation was slow, adding that there could sometimes be six months to a year between the promise of support and the actual delivery of it.
Receiving weapons that were old or in poor condition also had a negative impact on Ukraine’s military capabilities, he added.
Regarding US President-elect Donald Trump entering the scene soon, Zelensky said changes would be “inevitable”.
“We will build a relationship with the new administration, that will be our priority,” he insisted.
“The United States is and remains our largest donor in this war, although for Ukraine, I want to emphasise, Europe and the United States are both important.”
“We don’t put anyone above the other. America can have an influence on Putin. The European Union is our future. That’s where we see each other,” Zelensky concluded.
