The Ukrainian President Wolodymyr Selenskyj In discussions with Russia, the US negotiators warned of inadmissible concessions in the occupied areas of Ukraine. “All territories are part of the unitary state of Ukraine,” said the head of state at a press conference with NATO general secretary Mark Rutte in the port city of Odessa on the Black Sea.
Only the Ukrainian people decide on their territory. “And they know that this is a red line for us – not to recognize all the temporarily occupied areas as Ukrainian, but as Russian,” said Selenskyj local media.
“Representatives talk about things beyond their competence”
That’s why the US representatives talked about things beyond their competence, he said. This probably referred to Steve Witkoff, the special envoy of US President Donald Trump. Witkoff spoke to Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg last week. He then said that a peace agreement would also be about “the so -called five areas”.
After the annexation of the Black Sea Peninsula in Crimea in 2014 Russia 2022 also declared the Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Cherson and Saporischschja as its territory. In addition to the Crimea, Russia fully controls none of the areas. Moscow’s head of secret Sergei Naryschkin last said that Kyiv had to do without these territories.
The Ukrainian leadership no longer speaks – as at the beginning of the war – that a military reconquest of the occupied areas is possible. A permanent legal waiver for Kyiv is not up for debate.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 250415-930-442965/1
