Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared on Monday August 12 that kyiv had neither the “legal” nor the “moral” right to cede Ukrainian territories to Russia. The territorial issue has been at the center of ongoing negotiations over a U.S.-brokered peace plan.
“Are we considering ceding territories? We have no legal right to do so, under Ukrainian law, our constitution and international law. And we have no moral right either,” Ukraine’s president said in an online press conference.
“Russia insists that we cede territory, but we do not want to cede anything. We are fighting for this, as you well know,” he added, stressing that the United States was seeking to find a “compromise” on this point.
“There are difficult issues related to the territories and no compromises have yet been reached,” Zelensky said, also informing that Ukraine will present a new version of the peace plan to the United States this Tuesday (September 12).
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Meeting with European leaders
On Monday, European allies demonstrated their solidarity with Volodymyr Zelensky in London and expressed their “skepticism” about the details of the American proposal aimed at ending the war.
The French, German and British leaders met for a little less than two hours with the Ukrainian president, whom President Donald Trump had accused during the night of “not having read” the latest American proposals. Proposals whose content has not been disclosed.
Speaking at the opening of the meeting, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he was “skeptical” about “some of the details we see in the documents coming from the United States.” He did not specify which documents he was referring to.
French President Emmanuel Macron went in the same direction and stressed that “the main issue” was “convergence between our common positions, between Europeans and Ukrainians, and the United States”.
“There are some things we cannot handle without the Americans, some things we cannot handle without Europe, and that is why we have to make important decisions,” stressed Zelensky, who left immediately after the meeting for Brussels to meet with officials from NATO and the European Union. From there he heads to Italy.
Before the meeting, British leader Keir Starmer also indicated that he would not “pressure President” Zelensky to accept American proposals. “The most important thing is to achieve a cessation of hostilities” and that it be “just and lasting,” he told ITV News. The four leaders made no statement following the meeting.
Territorial question
Shortly before these discussions in London, a source told AFP that the territorial question remained the most “problematic”. Russia, which controls more than 80% of Donbass, wants to recover all of this territory, a request which has been rejected by kyiv.
The issue of using Russian assets frozen in Europe to finance Ukraine should also be discussed in London. A British official said Monday that he “expects to see progress soon” on the subject, as European Union countries hope to reach an agreement at the next EU summit, which will take place on December 18-19.
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