Ukraine will return territories when Russia weakens - Zelenskyy
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (photo: Vitalii Nosach, RBC-Ukraine)
Ukraine will return the occupied territories when the Russian Federation is weak. The current task is to accelerate this moment, said President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an interview with the British broadcaster ITV News.
Zelenskyy expressed confidence in the return of the Russian-occupied territories through diplomatic means when the aggressor state is weakened.
When asked if he thought he would ever see the Ukrainian flag in Sevastopol, Mariupol, and Donetsk, Zelenskyy expressed confidence.
"Yes, I am sure of it... At the moment when Russia is weak, which it will certainly be, everything will return. Our task is to make sure that everything comes back sooner. The sooner the better. And it came back diplomatically," the President said.
At the same time, he noted that people are more important than anything else, and said that the loss of people is very painful.
According to Zelenskyy, even countries that were completely on the side of Russia before the war and are still closely associated with it consider the seizure of Crimea and eastern Ukraine illegitimate.
"This is a very important signal. It says that no matter how strong an alliance Putin builds with others, such as Iran and North Korea, no matter how strong an economic alliance he builds with China, with some Arab states, no matter how political relations he has with some representatives of Latin America, all of this is built on things that are beneficial for certain states, as long as Putin can influence them with blackmail, weapons, money. And this shows that you cannot build sustainable relations on these things - you can only build temporary influence," he said.
Earlier in the same interview, the Ukrainian president emphasized that the end of Russia's war against Ukraine in 2025 is possible. For more details on how Zelenskyy sees it, see RBC-Ukraine's article.
Zelenskyy has already said that he is ready to negotiate with Vladimir Putin. At the time, he emphasized that he was not against such a development if it was the only option that would bring peace to the citizens of Ukraine and not lose people.
