Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday the country would not cede portions of the Donbas region to Russia amid ceasefire talks.
“We will never leave the Donbas” Zelensky told reporters Tuesday, per NewsNation.
“Everyone forgets the first part of the film,” he added, referring to Russia’s 2014 takeover of Crimea.
His comments come days before President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are scheduled to meet in Alaska without Zelensky for peace discussions, which the Ukrainian leader has dismissed.
“Any decisions made against us, any decisions made without Ukraine, are at the same time decisions against peace,” he said Saturday. “They will bring nothing. These are dead decisions; they will never work.”
Trump has already signaled that a “land swap” may be necessary to end the war.
Zelensky said he spoke with the president and special envoy Steve Witkoff via phone recently about what steps Russia was prepared to take to end the war.
“Witkoff said that there should be territorial concessions from both sides – that’s how it sounded. And that, most likely, Putin wants us to withdraw from Donbas. In other words, it didn’t sound like it was America wanting us to withdraw,” the Ukrainian leader said.
“During the call, I said that I am not ready to discuss Ukraine’s territories, as this is solely a matter of our Constitution,” Zelensky added.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and captured most of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions within Donbas.
The Kremlin has already expressed a desire to keep Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson before committing to ending the violent strikes in eastern Europe.
However, Zelensky said, “Donbas for the Russians is a springboard for a future new offensive.”
“If today we leave Donbas, from our fortifications, from our reliefs, from the heights that we control, we will clearly open a bridgehead for preparing an offensive by the Russians. In a few years, Putin will have an open path to both the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro regions. And not only that. Also to Kharkiv,” he added, according to PoliticoEU.
Kherson was previously occupied by Russia but eventually liberated by Ukraine in 2022.
Ukraine currently controls both Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, which serve as administrative centers in their regions.
While Zelensky has nixed the idea of overturning land masses to end the war, he has also urged both Trump and Putin to consider adding finite conditions to any peace agreements to ensure the war’s end.
“The territorial issue cannot be raised without security guarantees,” Zelensky told reporters.
Updated: 5:00 p.m.
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