Ukraine parliament says no return to 1991 borders
The Deputy Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament said that the country cannot return to the 1991 borders by military means.
According to TASS news agency on November 9, Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) Anna Skorokhod said that based on conversations with Ukrainian servicemen on the front line, she realized that Ukraine cannot return to the 1991 borders by military means.
“Of course, we all want to return to the borders of 1991,” the Verkhovna Rada deputy said in a talk show on Ukrainian television. However, according to Ms. Skorokhod, all the servicemen she spoke to said that, given the situation on the front, Ukraine had “passed the point of no return” and that “retaking control of the territories, the borders of 1991 is impossible.”
Skorokhod also noted that very few Ukrainians volunteered to go to the front. The situation in the country, she said, was dire: many people were being forced to go to the border. "I don't see a mass of people ready to fight to the end," she said.
Referring to the conflict between the Chief of the Presidential Administration Andrei Ermak and the Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Yevgeny Shevchenko - who called to start negotiations on a solution with the Russian Federation, Ms. Skorokhod emphasized that Ukraine is now facing the question of national survival. "So what do we want? Do we want victory under the strategy of Andrei Ermak or do we want to stop the bloodshed and the survival of the nation?", Ms. Skorokhod said.
Earlier, on October 18, Ukrainian President Zelensky said that Ukraine's borders after the end of the conflict depended on many different factors, but Kiev would not legally recognize the loss of control over the territory. Previously, Mr. Zelensky emphasized that the conflict should only end with the restoration of the 1991 border.
