Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that Kiev has no legal or moral right to cede territory to Moscow as part of any deal aimed at ending Russia’s nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. TASR informs about it according to the report of the AFP agency.
- Ukrainian President Zelensky refuses to cede territory to Russia.
- European leaders showed their support for the Ukrainian president.
- The meeting took place in London at Downing Street.
- Trump blames Zelensky for not accepting the peace plan.
- European support is a step towards harmonizing attitudes.
The European allies of Ukraine showed their support for the Ukrainian president on Monday. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer received Zelensky, as well as French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at his Downing Street residence in London.
Zelensky refuses concessions
At an online press conference after negotiations with the aforementioned European leaders, Zelenskyy emphasized that Kyiv cannot cede territory to Russia in any possible agreement. According to an official familiar with the negotiations, territorial issues still remain “the most problematic issue” in the negotiations.
“Are we planning to cede territories? According to Ukrainian law, our constitution and international law, we have no legal right to do so. And we have no moral right to do so either,” Zelensky emphasized.
Trump accuses Zelensky
The meeting in London took place after US President Donald Trump accused Zelensky of failing to read his administration’s draft peace plan to end the war. Saturday’s negotiations between Ukrainian and American officials ended without an apparent breakthrough, although the Ukrainian president pledged to hold further talks on “real peace”. US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner earlier met with Putin in Moscow, which rejects parts of the US proposal.
“I’m skeptical of some of the details we’re seeing in the documents coming from the American side, but we have to talk about them. That’s why we’re here,” Merz said at the start of Monday’s meeting, without specifying which version of the proposal he was referring to.
The European attitude and the American plan
Before the talks, Starmer said he would not pressure Zelensky to accept the deal initiated by the Trump administration. Macron said the “main issue” was to find “alignment” between the position of Europe and Ukraine and that of the United States.
The US plan has undergone several revisions since its first presentation in November following criticism that it is too sympathetic to Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022, AFP added.
