White House: Ukraine to decide for itself on territorial concessions to end conflict
The White House said the issue of territorial concessions to end the conflict with Russia is up to Ukraine and its people to decide.
According to RIA Novosti, John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the White House National Security Council, said that President Zelensky and Ukraine must independently decide whether to cede territory to end the conflict. The US will not exert pressure on this issue.
“When and how this conflict ends depends on what President Zelensky and the Ukrainian people can accept,” John Kirby told reporters at a special press conference after the meeting between US President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on September 26 (Washington time).
Along with that, Mr. John Kirby said, President Zelensky's so-called "victory plan" is "a set of initiatives" that the US and Ukraine will have to study more deeply in the coming weeks.
“Overall, it includes a series of initiatives, steps and goals,” Mr. Kirby said at the press conference.
The White House coordinator for strategic communications added that, at the request of the US President, Mr. Kirby's team, together with representatives of Kiev, will study these proposals in more depth in the coming weeks.
The US official declined to discuss the feasibility of the plan, referring questions to Kiev, but Kirby added that President Biden and President Zelensky would meet on October 12 in Germany, where the two leaders would discuss the proposals.
In late July 2024, President Zelensky authorized a referendum on the terms of ending the conflict with Russia. Zelensky called Ukraine’s territorial integrity a complex Ukrainian issue, saying he could not resolve it “without the Ukrainian people.”
