Ukraine ready to fight for return of Crimea through diplomacy - Zelensky

Ukraine cannot legally recognize any occupied territory as Russian, and is ready to work toward regaining control of Crimea through diplomatic tools.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said this  in an interview with Fox News, Ukrinform reports.

When asked whether Zelensky would agree to a ceasefire agreement on the condition that part of Ukrainian territories would remain in Russia, he said: "We cannot legally acknowledge any occupied territory of Ukraine as Russian. That is about those territories... occupied by Putin before the full-scale invasion, since 2014. Legally, we are not acknowledging that, we are not adopting that."

On the other hand, Zelensky noted that Ukraine realizes it so far has no sufficient strength to push Putin back to the borders as of 1991 by military means.

Answering a question about Crimea, Zelensky noted that Ukraine is ready to "bring Crimea back diplomatically".

"We cannot spend dozens of thousands of our people so that they perish for the sake of Crimea coming back... we understand that Crimea can be brought back diplomatically," the president said.

Journalist Trey Yingst, who interviewed Zelensky, said during the news program that he spent more than 10 hours with the President on the front line. According to the journalist, Zelensky said Ukraine would fight on even if U.S. cut its assistance. At the same time, the president noted that, in his opinion, Ukraine would have lost the war had it not received help from the United States.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, the US Department of Defense on Wednesday announced another security aid package for Ukraine worth $275 million.

Photo: President’s Office