Ukrainian authorities have expressed, on social media, that the country will not make territorial concessions, in particular with regard to Crimea, in exchange for peace. The statements were made a day after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva suggested that Ukraine could cede the peninsula to Russia.
“What does Putin want? He cannot keep the territory of Ukraine. Crimea may not even be discussed, but what it invaded as a novelty will have to be rethought,” said the president.
On Facebook, the spokesman for Ukraine’s diplomacy, Oleg Nikolenko, said that Ukraine is grateful for President Lula’s efforts to find a solution to the conflict. However, he added: “There is no legal, political or moral reason why we have to give up even an inch of Ukrainian land.”
Nikolenko further commented that any mediation effort to restore peace must be based on respect for the country’s sovereignty.
Retired Ukrainian diplomat Olexander Scherba also used social networks to criticize Lula. On Twitter, he questioned whether the Brazilian chief executive would apply the statement to himself.
“Brazilian President Lula da Silva: ‘Zelensky can’t want everything!’ Define ‘everything’ please! Ukraine’s sovereignty over its own land? Would you apply this principle to yourself?”
On Thursday (6), over coffee with journalists, Lula defended the end of the war which, for him, “has no justification” to continue.
“There is no justification for this war to continue. When a war starts, we analyze it as if it were something very complicated, difficult and different from our daily lives. I think this war is over. Brazil defends the territorial integrity of each nation, therefore we do not agree with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”
annexation of crimea
Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula in 2014, in a move denounced by Ukraine and many western allies as violating international law.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to retake the territory as the country battles Russia’s full-scale invasion, launched eight years after it seized the peninsula.
The two countries have not discussed ending the fighting for a year. The suggestion that Crimea might be up for negotiation has essentially been taboo for Ukrainian officials since the early days of the war.
*Posted by Pedro Zanatta, CNN.
Source: CNN Brasil
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