Ukraine will not withdraw troops from its territory, as Russia demands. Defending the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity is a constitutional duty of both the president and the military.
This was stated by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky during a briefing.
“The issue here is not about President Trump. Why? With all due respect, because this is our land, our country, our army, and our independence. The question is what Ukraine can afford to do and what it cannot. No one will withdraw our troops from our territories. It is my constitutional duty and the duty of our military to defend Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Zelensky said.
He noted that currently there are temporarily occupied territories due to the aggression of such a large country, but Ukraine will not comply with any ultimatums, and “no one will surrender their land, their territories, their people, their homes.”
“I don’t know what principles are in that memorandum. Probably, let’s be honest, what we discussed with the leaders—and I have spoken multiple times with President Trump and his team—is this: If Russia demands that we withdraw our troops from our own land, it means they do not want a ceasefire and do not want the war to end. Because they clearly understand that Ukraine will not do this,” the president added.
As a reminder, during negotiations in Istanbul on May 16, the Russian delegation presented five demands to the Ukrainian representatives in Turkey, which concern:
- Ukraine’s “neutrality,”
- renunciation of reparations,
- rights of Russian speakers,
- “recognition” of the occupation of Ukrainian territories,
- withdrawal of Ukrainian Armed Forces from certain regions for an immediate ceasefire.
Specifically, Ukraine supposedly should not deny Russia’s “constitutional” claims to five Ukrainian regions (Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Crimea), and the Kremlin seeks international “recognition” of the occupied territories.
