Ukrainian MPs ready to renounce claim to Donbass – Die Welt
Ukrainian MPs are ready to renounce Kiev’s claim to Donbass in order to achieve peace with Russia, German outlet Die Welt has claimed, citing a high-ranking lawmaker.
The report comes amid accelerated advances by Russian forces along most of the front line. Moscow said last week that eight settlements and a total of 300 square kilometers had been liberated in the first two weeks of January alone.
Die Welt’s correspondent in the Ukraine, Steffen Schwarzkopf, said live on air on Saturday that “an extremely influential parliamentarian” told him that the deteriorating situation has made many Ukrainian MPs change their stance on territorial concessions to Moscow.
According to Schwarzkopf, his interlocutor acknowledged that “yes, we have to make a compromise, even if it’s extremely painful; and yes, we have to give up Donbass.”
The MP noted that she and her colleagues believe a ceasefire is needed “at any cost,” the correspondent said.
The lawmaker refused to talk on camera because what she said contradicts the position of Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, who has repeatedly ruled out the possibility of giving up any land to Russia, he stressed.
Schwarzkopf claimed that the MP told him there is “a climate of fear” in Kiev and that her political career “would be over immediately” under pressure from the secret services if she made such statements publicly.
In his address to the Russian Foreign Ministry in June 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow will stop hostilities if Kiev officially renounces its aspirations to join NATO and withdraws troops from the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk in Donbass, and from the regions of Kherson and Zaporozhye. The four territories joined the Russian state in the fall of 2022 as a result of referendums.
Russia’s stance has since hardened, however. Putin said in late December that considering the events on the ground, Moscow has “practically zero” interest in a Ukrainian pullout from Donbass and other areas, and that Russia will achieve its aims either diplomatically or militarily.
