Trump considers the occupied territories to be the central issue in the war

The status of the occupied Ukrainian territories is a central issue in Russia's war against Ukraine. This opinion was expressed by US President's Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in an interview with American propagandist Tucker Carlson, reports UNN.

Details

"I believe that the biggest problem in this conflict is these so-called four regions: Donbas, Crimea, Luhansk, and two more," Witkoff said.

It should be noted that the territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions and Crimea are currently under temporary Russian occupation.

"They are Russian-speaking, there were (illegal - ed.) referendums, where the vast majority of people expressed that they want to be under the rule of Russia. I think this is the key issue of the conflict," Witkoff said.

Propagandist Carlson interrupted Witkoff and said that Russia controls them. "In fact, some of these territories are now, from Russia's point of view, part of Russia," Carlson claims.

To which Witkoff replied: "That's right, but it's always been a problem. No one wants to talk about it. It's the elephant in the room. The elephant in the room is the constitutional issues in Ukraine regarding what they can go to regarding the abandonment of territory. The Russians de facto control these territories. The question is, will the world recognize these territories as Russian territories? Will it end? Can Zelensky survive politically if he recognizes it? This is the central issue of the conflict."

Context

On September 23-27 2022, the Russian Federation organized a propaganda performance called "referendums" in the temporarily occupied territories of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine called the coercion of people in these territories to fill out some papers under the gun of Russian soldiers another crime of Russia in the course of its aggression against Ukraine, which grossly violates the Constitution and laws of our state, the norms of international law and international obligations of Russia. This performance has nothing to do with the expression of will and has no consequences for the administrative-territorial structure and internationally recognized borders of Ukraine. Ukraine and the international community condemned such actions of Russia and consider them null and void, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated.

On March 15, President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that the Ukrainian position is that Ukraine will not recognize the occupied territories as Russian. These issues were discussed during the meeting in Jeddah, but the US received Kyiv's positions.

On March 19, Zelensky stated that for Ukraine "the red line" is the recognition of the Ukrainian temporarily occupied territories by Russia. "We will not do this," the President said.