“The American edition of The New York Times writes that Ukrainian officials have been saying for months that they will not cede the territory occupied by Russia in any peace settlement. But now that Ukraine is considering an accelerated timetable for talks that US President-elect Donald Trump is pushing for, it is placing as much importance on receiving security guarantees as it does on where the demarcation line might be drawn.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
Source: NYT
Details: As the publication writes, since Ukrainian forces are constantly losing ground in the east, two Ukrainian high-ranking officials said that the protection of Ukraine’s interests at potential negotiations will depend not on the borders, which will probably be determined by hostilities, but on what guarantees exist for observing the ceasefire regime. .
Advertising:
Direct speech head of the Defense and Intelligence Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Roman Kostenko: “Negotiations should be based on guarantees. There is nothing more important for Ukraine.”
Details: Another high-ranking Ukrainian official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to be more frank about sensitive topics: “The territorial issue is extremely important, but it is still the second issue. The first issue is security guarantees.”
Kostenko also noted that Ukraine establishes its borders based on the 1991 declaration of independence. Since then, Russia has gained control of about 20 percent of Ukrainian land, but Kyiv will not officially renounce its claims to any territory under Russian occupation.
Literally: “It seems that this is exactly the approach that Ukraine is using to justify any possible agreement in which Russia would retain control over Ukrainian land. In October, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, discussing the ceasefire issue, said: “Everyone understands that no matter what the way we will go, no one legally recognizes the occupied territories as belonging to other countries.”