Ukraine does not have enough forces to reach 1991 borders with weapons in hands - Zelenskyy

According to Zelenskyy, Ukraine cannot legally recognize any occupied territory as Russian.

"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. We understand that so far we do not have that much force, so that with the weapons in our hands we could push Putin back to the line of 1991," Zelenskyy said.

He noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it clear that Crimea will never return to Ukraine.

"Are you willing to give up Crimea in pursuit of a peace deal to end this war and stop the bloodshed in Europe? 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 stressed.

He said that he understood that Crimea could be returned to Ukraine only through diplomatic means, not with arms.

Ukraine-Russia negotiations

Currently, negotiations between Ukraine and Russia are not taking place. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasizes that the only area of contact with Russia concerns the exchange of prisoners.

At the same time, Western media reported that Ukraine and Russia, with Qatar acting as a mediator, allegedly began "preliminary discussions" on halting strikes on energy infrastructure. However, this information was officially denied by both the Ukrainian side and the Kremlin.

Former US President Donald Trump stated that if he returns to the White House, he intends to immediately organize negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in turn, warned against rushing to end the war through unjustified compromises.