Slowly but surely, Kiev seems to be adjusting its territorial demands to reality.
In the runup to the Donald J. Trump-Vladimir Putin peace talks in Alaska on Friday 15, Kiev regime leader Volodymyr Zelensky was featured in dozens of news outlets repeating the same line, as we reported yesterday:
The Washington Post: “Ukraine will reject any proposal that involves ceding territory to Russia, Zelensky says”; BBC News: “Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine will not give up land as Donald Trump suggests idea ahead of meeting Vladimir Putin in Alaska”; Reuters: “‘Ukrainians will not give their land to occupiers,’ President Zelenskiy said”; The Straits Times: “Zelensky says Ukraine will not cede land to Russia for peace”; Bloomberg: “Zelenskiy Rejects Ceding Land as Key Security Officials Meet”.
But now, it seems that he has clarified that he will not cede land ‘that he still holds.’
The Ukrainian stated goals went down from demanding the 1991 borders back (meaning they’d even want the Crimean Peninsula returned) to making a stand for the 2020 borders (regaining all the 25% of territory lost in the war) and now, they appear to only want to keep of what they still have.
British press is reporting that Ukraine may ‘agree to stop fighting and cede territory already held by Russia’ as part of a plan for peace.
The Telegraph reported:
“Volodymyr Zelensky told European leaders that they must reject any settlement proposed by Donald Trump which sees them giving up Ukrainian land they still hold – but that Ukrainian territory in Russia’s control could be on the table.
This would mean freezing the frontline where it is and handing Russia de-facto control of the territory it occupies in Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Crimea.”
“’I have many fears and a lot of hope’, Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, said on Monday. He added that US officials had pledged to consult European leaders ahead of the face-to-face talks between Mr. Trump and Putin.”
As we have reported earlier here in TGP, the opponents of the peace talks are reacting to a plan that, plausible as it seems, has never been officially announced by either the US or Russia.
The supposed peace plan would be endorsed by Moscow, and it included ‘freezing the front lines in south-eastern Ukraine’ (that is, in Kherson and Zaporozhie) if Ukraine ‘agrees to withdraw from areas of Donetsk and Luhansk that it controls’.
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