A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kyiv, Oleh Nikolenko, said on Friday that Ukraine “does not trade its territories,” in response to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s offer to give up Crimea to end the war.

Map of CrimeaPhoto: Marek Uliasz / Alamy / Profimedia Images

“Ukraine appreciates the efforts of the Brazilian president to find a solution to stop Russian aggression,” Nikolenko wrote on his Facebook account, Agerpres reports. “At the same time, we must clearly say: Ukraine does not trade its territories,” added the spokesman of the Ukrainian agency.

Nikolenko added that “there are no legal, political, or moral grounds for us to give up a single centimeter of Ukrainian territory,” and once again emphasized that his country’s position on this issue remains unchanged.

“Any mediation efforts to restore peace in Ukraine must be based on respect for Ukraine’s sovereignty and full restoration of its territorial integrity in accordance with the principles of the UN Charter,” Nikolenko emphasized.

In this way, the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine responded to Lula’s recent statements, in which he claimed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “cannot want everything” and mentioned the possibility of negotiations regarding the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which was militarily annexed by Russia in 2014.

___

  • Follow the latest events of the war in Ukraine LIVETEXT on HotNews.ro