The Government of Ukraine affirmed this Friday that it will not give up Crimea, a peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, in exchange for the end of the war, thus responding to the formulation suggested the day before by the president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
“There is no legal, political or moral reason to justify abandoning a single centimeter of Ukrainian territory,” the spokesman for Ukrainian diplomacy, Oleg Nikolenko, wrote on Facebook, adding that he nevertheless appreciated “the efforts of the Brazilian president to find a way to stop the Russian aggression.
“Any mediation effort to restore peace in Ukraine must be based on respect for the full and entire sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, in accordance with the principles of the United Nations charter,” the spokesperson added.
On Thursday, the Brazilian president had suggested that Ukraine cede the Crimean peninsula to Russia to facilitate an end to the war, and stated that Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky “cannot want everything.”
“(Russian President Vladimir) Putin cannot keep the territory of Ukraine. Maybe Crimea will be discussed. But what has invaded again has to be rethought”, Lula also said in a meeting with journalists at the Planalto presidential palace in Brasilia.
Lula formulated at the end of January a proposal for mediation in the conflict in Ukraine by a group of countries. The Brazilian leader plans to present this project to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in Beijing next week.
The Brazilian head of state said he is confident in the chances of success of this project, and hopes that the group of countries can be created upon his return from China.
Russia has said on several occasions in recent days that peace talks are impossible in the current context, and has assured that it will maintain its military operation in Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted on Friday that peace talks on Ukraine should be based on a “new world order” free from US domination.
(With information from AFP)