Is this admission a prelude to near-future negotiations under the Trump administration? Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has for the first time expressly admitted in a Fox News interview that Ukraine will never be able to take back Crimea by force.
He said that Ukraine could not afford to lose the number of lives that would perish in undertaking a military invasion of Crimea, saying that it would only be restored to Ukrainian sovereignty through diplomatic means. He also warned that if US defense aid is blocked under Trump, his country will ‘lose’ the war.
He did emphasize he’s not ready to cede territory, explaining that Ukraine “cannot legally acknowledge any occupied territory of Ukraine as Russian.”
“That is about those territories… occupied by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin before the full-scale invasion, since 2014. Legally, we are not acknowledging that, we are not adopting that,” he added.
All of this was in response to journalist Trey Yingst pressing Zelensky on whether he’d be willing to give up Russian-held Crimea in order to “stop the bloodshed in Europe”. Crimea had been annexed since 2014 following a popular referendum, but Moscow has always had its Black Sea naval fleet based there.
Yingst asked: “President Vladimir Putin has been very clear Crimea will never return to Ukrainian hands. Are you willing to give up Crimea in pursuit of a peace deal to end this war and stop the bloodshed in Europe?”
“I was already mentioning that we are ready to bring Crimea back diplomatically,” Zelensky responded. “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.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Zelensky was asked about the possibility of US President-elect Donald Trump cutting off US military aid once he returns to the White House.
“If they will cut, I think we will lose. Of course, anyway, we will stay and we will fight. We have production, but it’s not enough to prevail. And I think it is not enough to survive,” he conceded.
At the moment, the Biden administration is trying to rush everything it can to the Ukrainians, having just approved another $275 million arms package.
Biden officials are also still pressing Kiev to step up mobilization efforts. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in a recent interview with PBS News Hour described that the real problem allowing for a continued Russian advance is lack of manpower, and not arms or advanced technology.
Sullivan said in the Monday conversation, “Our view has been that there’s not one weapon system that makes a difference in this battle. It’s about manpower, and Ukraine needs to do more, in our view, to firm up its lines in terms of the number of forces it has on the front lines.”
He emphasized, “Where is the straightest line between Ukrainian performance and inputs? It’s on mobilization and manpower.” The West has been pressuring Zelensky to lower the conscription age, which would be a deeply unpopular move at home.