Trump hints at ‘big progress’ in Ukraine talks as Zelensky warns against giving away territory
Allowing Russia to seize land by force sets a dangerous precedent, Zelensky sayspublished at 10:40 GMT
Laura Gozzi
Europe reporter
Earlier today, Zelensky said a major issue was that Putin wanted “legal recognition to what he has stolen, to break the principle of territorial integrity and sovereignty” – a reference to Russia’s repeated demand that Ukrainian troops withdraw from several embattled eastern regions.
With this, Zelensky is making the point that allowing Russia to seize land by force would set a dangerous precedent.
International law recognises Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its occupation of several other regions directly challenged this principle – and the idea that a peace settlement could reward Moscow for its aggression is unacceptable, Zelensky says.
The US peace plan draft proposes to freeze the front line in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, giving Moscow control of huge areas of those regions. Perhaps more concerningly for Ukraine, it also says Kyiv should hand over the areas of the industrial eastern Donbas region still under Ukrainian control to the de facto control of Russia.
Zelensky has repeatedly said that giving up the Donbas would leave Ukraine vulnerable to Russian attacks in the future – not to mention the thousands of casualties Ukraine has suffered, and is still suffering, trying to protect the region.
It would be very difficult for Zelensky to justify the loss of the Donbas to Ukrainians.
