Zelensky rules out ceding territory to end war with Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday he ruled out ceding ‘territory’ to end the war with Russia, as he presented his ‘Plan for Victory’ to parliament in Kiev. 

‘Russia has to lose the war against Ukraine. There can be no ‘freezing’ (of the front line). There can be no exchange of Ukrainian territory or sovereignty,’ he told MPs as he outlined his plan, which he will also present on Thursday to the 27 EU countries during a summit. 

Zelenski defended as part of that plan the deployment of non-nuclear deterrents in his country. 

‘Ukraine proposes to deploy a comprehensive set of non-nuclear strategic deterrence measures on its territory, which will be sufficient to protect Ukraine from any military threat from Russia,’ he said. 

He said the details of this proposal were set out in a ‘secret annex’ to his victory plan, which he transmitted to the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Germany. 

He again asked his Western allies to allow him to use long-range weapons against Russia, the use of which is currently restricted. 

Zelenski called on ‘partners to lift restrictions on the use of long-range weapons throughout Russian-occupied Ukraine and on Russian territory’, on ‘enemy military infrastructure’ and more help to ‘equip our reserve brigades’. 

Russia, which invaded Ukraine in late February 2022, rejected the victory plan presented by Zelenski and called on Kiev to ‘wake up’. 

‘The only possible peace plan is for the Kiev regime to understand that its policy lacks perspective and that it needs to wake up,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. 

The Russian Defence Ministry also announced on Wednesday that Russian forces conquered the towns of Nevske in the Lugansk region of eastern Ukraine and Krasni Yar, about twelve kilometres from Pokrovsk, a town of strategic importance to the Ukrainian army.