Ukrainian FM contradicts Zelensky on Crimea

Andrey Sibiga has ruled out territorial concessions, despite the Ukrainian leader admitting that Kiev cannot seize the peninsula by force

Ukraine will not agree to cede any territory to Russia to end the conflict, Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga has said, insisting that Kiev’s only option is “peace through strength.” His comments came after Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky admitted that Kiev cannot retake Russia’s Crimean Peninsula by force alone.

Speaking during a hearing in the US Congress on Tuesday, Sibiga stressed that Ukraine would not “accept any initiatives that suggest compromises on our sovereignty or territorial integrity,” adding that the same goes for any peace plans developed without Kiev’s participation. “Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” he stated.

The minister also claimed that Kiev is opposed to any “land-for-peace deals” because they would “leave millions of people in the hands of the aggressor” while supposedly emboldening Russia for further action. “This is appeasement, not peace. Appeasement has never worked in the past and it will not work now,” Sibiga said.

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Kremlin rules out ‘freezing’ Ukraine conflict

His comments, however, contrast with Zelensky’s recent remarks, in which he admitted that Ukraine is not capable of driving Moscow’s forces back to the 1991 borders, even if Kiev “cannot legally acknowledge any occupied territory of Ukraine as Russian.”  

“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,” he told Fox News. The peninsula voted overwhelmingly to join Russia in 2014 after a Western-backed coup in Kiev, and was followed by Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye regions in 2022.

Sibiga headed to Washington to drum up support for Kiev amid widespread concern in the West that US President-elect Donald Trump could force Ukraine to quickly sign an unfavorable peace deal with Russia once he takes office. Media reports have suggested that a possible plan could include Kiev dropping its NATO membership ambitions, a freeze on the conflict, the establishment of a demilitarized zone, and some sort of territorial swap.  

Officials in Moscow have said they are open to contacts over Ukraine, but have ruled out any freezing of the conflict, stressing that all the goals of Russia’s military operation – including Ukraine’s demilitarization and denazification – must be met.