Zelenskyy: If we start talking about our sovereign territories, then we moving into prolonging war
Ukraine wants a swift and fair peace, but if the conversation is about sovereign territories, then the format moves into prolonging the war, which is what Russia wants, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy commented on the information that the U.S. peace plan provides for the transfer of occupied Ukrainian territories to Russia.
"If we do not want to just get into a long dispute with the Russians, in order to put pressure on us on different terms without stopping the fire. If we do not want to play this Minsk 3, 4, 5 and a copy of the Normandy format, but with a different number of victims, if we don't want that, then we must look at this war as a pie and divide this big problem into pieces if we really want to settle something. Since as soon as we start talking about Crimea, about our sovereign territories, etc., we enter the format that Russia wants, which is prolonging the war," Zelenskyy said during a briefing on Tuesday.
The president stressed the need for pressure on Russia around the world, and also called prolonging the war "Putin's game."
"This is Putin's game. It's definitely not President Trump's game. It's definitely not Europe's game, but Ukraine doesn't play with this, for us war is more, it's much more serious," the president said.