Ukraine to pursue 'diplomatic' liberation of Crimea, will not acknowledge occupied territories as Russian, Zelensky says

Ukraine "cannot legally acknowledge any occupied territory of Ukraine as Russian," President Volodymyr Zelensky said when asked about ceding land to Russia in exchange for peace during an interview with Fox News published Nov. 20.

While Kyiv has consistently rejected territorial concessions as the basis of peace talks, the election of Donald Trump has raised fears that Ukraine may be pushed to the negotiating table under threat of the withdrawal of U.S. aid.

Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst asked Zelensky if he would accept loss of territory to Russia as part of a peace deal.

"We cannot legally acknowledge any occupied territory of Ukraine as Russian," Zelensky said.

"That is about those territories... occupied by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin before the full-scale invasion, since 2014. Legally, we are not acknowledging that, we are not adopting that."

Yingst also asked Zelensky if he would be willing to give up Russian-occupied Crimea, illegally annexed since 2014, in order to "stop the bloodshed in Europe."

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An American-made HIMARS artillery system races down a Ukrainian road as a kamikaze drone hunts it down. The drone flies into the vehicle, followed by an explosion. The scene was caught on video by a Russian reconnaissance drone in mid-November. The drone that hit the HIMARS was a Lancet — one

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Zelensky said Ukraine was prepared to pursue a diplomatic approach to Crimea's liberation.

"I was already mentioning that we are ready to bring Crimea back diplomatically," he said.

"We cannot spend dozens of thousands of our people so that they perish for the sake of Crimea coming back ... We understand that Crimea can be brought back diplomatically."

This is not a new line for Zelensky, who told Reuters in 2022 that Crimea could be returned by diplomatic means." Following the unveiling of Zelensky's five-point victory plan for Ukraine this fall, Ukrainian lawmakers also acknowledged that some territories might be returned through diplomacy rather than military means.

Republican party strategist Bryan Lanza said on Nov. 9 that Zelensky should accept that "Crimea is gone" ahead of any future peace talks, though the Trump team later distanced itself from Lanza's comments.

Putin said on Nov. 20 that he is willing to discuss a ceasefire in Ukraine with Trump, but would not make major territorial concessions and would insist that Kyiv abandon plans to join NATO. Moscow currently holds the advantage on the battlefield in Ukraine, and it is unclear why Russia would choose to pause at its current phase.

A growing number of Ukrainians favor a negotiated end to the war, according to a recent Gallup poll. A significant majority of respondents said they would prefer peace talks be brokered by Europe or the U.K. over the U.S. led by Trump.

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