Russia asks Ukraine to realise 'de facto situation' on ceding its occupied territory

Russia is waiting for Ukraine to accept its de facto demands “and realize the real situation,” Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in response to former US secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger’s comments made earlier on Monday. Kissinger sparked controversy, saying that Ukraine should cede territory to Russia and end the invasion, a stance that triggered outrage among the Ukrainians, including president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

In his recorded message, Zelenskyy slammed US’ former secretary of state, emphasizing that “millions actually live on the territory that ‘great geopoliticians’ propose exchanging for an illusion of peace.” Echoing Kissinger’s position who said Ukraine must return to the "status quo ante” using Italian term for ceding, Peskov maintained that Kyiv must accept Moscow’s demands, including its claims to the occupied territories. 

"Moscow expects Kyiv to accept Moscow's demands and become aware of the de facto situation - the real situation that exists,” Peskov iterated. 

Kyiv needs to recognize 'de facto situation': Kremlin 

When asked whether this also implies "territorial concessions,” Peskov said; "These are not territorial concessions, Kyiv needs to recognize the de facto situation and simply assess soberly.” Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine in 2014 by drafting what Kyiv labels “illegal referendums” and recent suggestions that Ukraine must give away territory in exchange for peace—including occupied oblasts of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhia regions and entire Kherson region has irked the Ukrainians. 

“Whatever the Russian state does, you will always find someone who says, ‘let’s take its interests into account’,” Zelenskyy said in response to such iterations. 

“In Davos, for example, Mr Kissinger has emerged from the deep past and said that part of Ukraine should be given to Russia to avoid the alienation of Russia from Europe,” Zelenskyy asserted. “It seems that Mr Kissinger has 1938 on the calendar instead of 2022 and he thought that he was addressing the audience in Munich of those times, instead of the audience in Davos", he added.

Zelenskyy slammed Kissinger, saying that in the year 1938, when Kissinger's family was fleeing Nazi Germany, he was 15 years old, and he understood everything perfectly.  And yet, nobody heard from him then that it was necessary to adapt to the Nazis instead of fleeing them or fighting them.

While Ukraine’s president has offered to negotiate and hold direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war, he categorically rejected prospects of ceding even an inch of Ukraine’s territory.  The former has emphasizes that only a diplomatic breakthrough can end the war.  Zelenskyy had also told his armed forces that the situation will be “extremely difficult” with Russia “preparing for new powerful blows” in eastern regions Ukraine but inissted to preparing a strong “active” defence. “I emphasise again, hard battles lie ahead. We cannot think we have already passed all the tests", he added.