Ceding any territory in the eastern part of Ukraine to Russia is a deal breaker and not up for negotiation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview that aired Sunday.
As Russian forces gear up for an expected major offensive in the eastern part of Ukraine, the Ukrainian leader appeared on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday and told host Jake Tapper that he will not consider giving up parts of his country in the Donbas region to bring an end to the war with Russia.
“Ukraine and the people of our states are absolutely clear: We don’t want anyone else’s territory, and we are not going to give up our own,” Zelensky said.
“We cannot give up our territory, but we must find at least some dialogue with Russia if they are capable and if we are still ready. But the chances of this are growing less by the day,” Zelensky said
UKRAINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: MARIUPOL ‘DOESN’T EXIST ANYMORE’
The Ukrainian leader believes that giving up territory in the Donbas, either through negotiation or by military force, doesn’t guarantee that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s army will stop there.
“I don’t trust the Russian military and Russian leadership,” Zelensky said. “That is why we understand that the fact that we fought them off and they left, and they were running away from Kyiv, from the north, from Chernihiv, and from that direction — it doesn’t mean if they are able to capture Donbas, they won’t come further toward Kyiv.”
In his nightly address on Sunday, Zelensky told Ukrainians that a Russian offensive in the east will “begin in the near future” and the invading army seeks to “wipe out” cities in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine.
“Russian troops are preparing for an offensive operation in the east of our country. It will begin in the near future. They want to literally finish off and destroy Donbas — destroy everything that once gave glory to this industrial region,” he said. “Just as the Russian troops are destroying Mariupol, they want to wipe out other cities and communities in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.”
Zelensky told Ukrainian media over the weekend that if Russian forces kill Ukraine’s remaining troop holdouts in Mariupol, it would effectively end peace negotiations with Russia.
“The destruction of all our guys in Mariupol, what they are doing now, can put an end to any format of negotiations,” the Ukrainian president said on Saturday.
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Zelensky continued to plead with Western allies to deliver arms and ammunition to Ukraine as soon as possible, saying on Sunday that the Kremlin interprets delays as an invitation to kill.
“Those who have the weapons and ammunition we need and delay their provision must know that the fate of this battle also depends on them,” Zelensky said. “The fate of people who can be saved … every delay in weapons, every political delay is a permission for Russia to take the lives of Ukrainians. This is how Russia interprets it.”
