Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has reaffimed his firm refusal to cede any territory, resisting U.S. pressure for a painful compromise with Russia as he continued to rally European support for Ukraine.
“Undoubtedly, Russia insists for us to give up territories. We, clearly, don’t want to give up anything. That’s what we are fighting for,” Zelenskyy said in a WhatsApp chat late Monday in which he answered reporters’ questions.
“Do we consider ceding any territories? According to the law we don’t have such right. According to Ukraine’s law, our constitution, international law, and to be frank, we don’t have a moral right either.”
Ukrainian independence and freedom is secured through negotiations. When Ukraine negotiates an end to the war and cedes territory, they still have independence and freedom. You are making up goal posts by saying that ceding land is an end to independence and freedom. It’s not. The end of independence and freedom would be Russia occupying Kiev. That is not in the cards. Russia will never occupy Kiev, they don’t have the resources for it. Instead, in the absence of a negotiated end to the conflict, Russia will bombard Kiev and the rest of Western Ukraine to destroy all infrastructure, all manufacturing, and all energy production. So Ukraine will be independent but destroyed entirely. The negotiation is to prevent such bombardment at the cost of the Russian speaking territories on the border with Russia and a legal guarantee that Ukraine will not allow foreign military bases that are hostile to Russia to establish themselves in Ukraine.