Ukraine wants to return to the territories of 1991 – Kuleba

Ukraine is trying to restore its territorial integrity within the internationally recognized 1991 borders. This was announced by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the country, Dmitry Kuleba.

He noted that it is impossible to reach any agreement based on the territorial preferences of the Ukrainian side.

"An important moment for Ukraine is the restoration of our territorial integrity within the internationally recognized borders of 1991.  It is impossible to have an agreement based on territorial preferences of Ukraine," said the diplomat at the panel discussion of the Council of Foreign Relations.  

Kuleba expressed his assumption that Moscow is ready for negotiations, and he  said that this may indicate the difficult situation of the Russian Federation at the front and the desire to win time.   

Russian-Ukrainian war

On 21 February this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree in the Kremlin recognizing the self-proclaimed independent Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) and Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) in eastern Ukraine. Later, the Russian Federation recognized the republics on the borders of the regions of the same name, increasing the risk of war against Ukraine.

Officials of the USA, EU, Canada, Australia, Great Britain and Japan also imposed sanctions against Russia due to Putin's emergency decision.

On 24 February, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that the Russian military had launched a "special military operation" in eastern Ukraine's Donbass, and Russian troops began attacking Ukraine. Putin justified this action by the fact that the leaders of the pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine sent such a request.

Earlier, Zelensky addressed the citizens of Russia in Russian and said that Ukrainians "Do not need cold, hot, or hybrid war" and that Ukrainians are ready to meet the attackers.  Soon after, the President severed diplomatic relations with Russia.  President Zelensky declared martial law in the country.

On 25 February, Zelensky announced a general military mobilization in Ukraine.  It was decided that the call to the army will be carried out in a number of regions and cities of the country.

Until now, Russian troops have been attacking Ukraine from the north, east and south and have occupied a number of territories.  As a result, Russia became isolated from the world.

The start of the attack on Ukraine gave a strong blow to the Russian economy.  Shares of Russian companies fell sharply, trading on the Moscow Stock Exchange fell to an unprecedented level.  Gazprom, LUKOIL and other large companies suffered losses.

After the attack, the European countries and the USA introduced several stages of sanctions against Russia.  "Russian" banks VTB, Bank of Russia, "Otkritiya", "Novikombank", "Promsvyazbank", "Sovkombank" and VEB.RF have been disconnected from the SWIFT international interbank system.  The USA and the European Union blocked Russia's gold-currency reserves.

European countries, USA, Canada have closed their airspace for Russia.  Switzerland, which is considered a neutral country, joined these sanctions.