Ukraine will not cede any of its territory, Zelenskyy tells Euronews

There will be “no territorial concessions” made to Russia as part of future peace negotiations, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Euronews as he arrived for the EU summit in Brussels on Thursday.

Zelenskyy's "no" came the morning after the EU and the US imposed new sanctions on Russia for Moscow’s refusal to reach a ceasefire in its all-out war against its neighbour.

The Kremlin said its demands have not changed, meaning Moscow wants to keep control over Crimea and four other regions of Ukraine, which Russian forces do not control entirely.

US outlets reported earlier this week that Putin made a new offer to Trump under which Ukraine would surrender the parts of the eastern Donbas region under its control in exchange for some smaller parts of the two southern frontline regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

Allegedly the area in question was Ukraine's Donetsk region, which, together with Luhansk, makes up the Donbas — a large industrial area in eastern Ukraine.

Russia has been trying to take complete control of it since the first invasion in 2014, but until today it has been unable to fully occupy it.

The Kremlin later made it clear that it is not backing off and still wants control over Crimea, plus the whole four regions that are only partially occupied at this time: Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

'I have always felt he wanted the whole thing'

US President Donald Trump himself said on Wednesday that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin did not scale down his territorial ambitions over Ukraine’s invasion.

“I have always felt he wanted the whole thing, not a piece of it,” the US president stated on Wednesday, referring to Putin’s maximalist territorial demands.

Freezing Russia's war along the current frontlines is "a good compromise," Zelenskyy said on Wednesday, reiterating his support for a ceasefire as the first step towards any deal to end Moscow's full-scale invasion.

"I think that was a good compromise but I'm not sure that Putin will support it," Zelenskyy said during a visit to Norway, adding that he communicated this to Trump.

"It's not like a plan (for) how to totally stop the war, it's mostly a plan of ceasefire," he added.

Kyiv has been suggesting this approach since the very first talks with Trump: an immediate, unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine, followed by direct Zelenskyy-Putin talks.

In an effort to pressure Moscow into agreeing to a ceasefire, the US imposed sanctions on Russia's two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil.

"Now is the time to stop the killing and for an immediate ceasefire," US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

"Given President Putin's refusal to end this senseless war, Treasury is sanctioning Russia’s two largest oil companies that fund the Kremlin’s war machine," Bessent stated.