Zelenskyy vows never to abandon Donbas despite Russian pressure
Photo: Ukrainian soldiers in Donbas (Getty Images)
Ukraine is not prepared to give up all of Donbas, as the region holds the country’s strongest defensive strongholds. Withdrawing troops would open the way for Russian forces to advance deeper into Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
Read also: 'We will push them out': Zelenskyy rejects territorial concessions to Russia
Responding to a question about whether Ukraine would be willing to abandon Donbas in exchange for security guarantees from allies, Zelenskyy stressed that “Russians do not want foreign troops in Ukraine, and Europe must be firmer on this issue.”
“I am not going to question whether there are foreign troops in Russia — for example, 10,000 North Korean soldiers. I do not understand why Moscow should decide which troops are stationed on our land,” the president emphasized.
“But I want to state clearly: I will never abandon Donbas and the 200,000 Ukrainians who live there. Why should I do that? Because Putin imposes it as a condition for peace? And will he immediately put forward new demands? No, I will not tolerate that,” Zelenskyy added.
The president noted that Ukraine’s best defensive positions are located in Donbas, and if Ukrainian troops withdraw, Russian forces would gain full freedom of action toward the center of the country.
“Let’s imagine it’s not Europeans but Americans who send their troops — for how long?” he said.
Zelenskyy also drew a parallel with the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.
“What will happen if, in 10 years, it’s not Trump but another US president who decides to withdraw troops? We need a strong Ukrainian defense line,” he concluded.
Background
Earlier, Western media reported on various “peace plans” that would involve freezing the war along the current front line and creating demilitarized zones on Ukrainian territory.
Bloomberg reported that Russia would be ready to sign a draft peace memorandum if Ukraine agreed to withdraw its forces from the entire Donetsk region.
At the same time, the Kremlin was allegedly prepared to withdraw troops from the Sumy, Kharkiv, and Dnipropetrovsk regions and abandon claims to Ukrainian-controlled parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
In response, Zelenskyy rejected any exchange of Donbas territory for other regions.
