From: CBS News By Ramy Inocencio
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared that Ukraine will not give up any territory to Russia and said components of a plan to end the war between the countries are ready to be presented to the U.S.
“Russia is insisting that we give up territories, but we don’t want to cede anything,” Zelenskyy said in an online press conference Monday, the AFP news agency reported.
“We have no legal right to do so, under Ukrainian law, our constitution and international law. And we don’t have any moral right either,” Zelenskyy said after leaving London, where he met with the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
Zelenskyy’s remarks suggest he will not bend to pressure from Russian President Vladimir Putin or President Trump, whose negotiators had proposed Ukraine give up its eastern region of the Donbas – about 20% of the country’s territory – as part of a plan to end Russia’s war on Ukraine, according to a draft shared publicly by a Ukrainian opposition politician and confirmed by a White House official. The Donbas region has mostly been taken over by Russia’s army in its nearly four-year long invasion of Ukraine, and the Kremlin had agreed to this point in the White House-authored peace proposal.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine will share a revised peace plan with the Trump administration.
“We are working very actively on all components of possible steps to end the war,” he said Tuesday on social media. “The Ukrainian and European components have already been worked out more, and we are ready to present them to our partners in America. Together with the American side, we expect to make the possible steps as workable as possible as soon as possible.”
Voice of Ukraine 