PRESS RELEASE : The war will end when Ukraine returns everything that the aggressor took from it – President

The press release issued by the President of Ukraine on 11 May 2022.

Ukraine wants to return the occupied territories, as well as to defend the freedom and human rights that the Russian aggressor is trying to take away from Ukrainian citizens. This was stated by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during an online conversation with students of leading universities in France, representatives of academia and the media.

“The war will end for the Ukrainian people only when we get back what’s ours. We do not need too much, because everything needs to be watched, we need only what’s ours. We want to return peace to our state, to our land,” he said.

“We want to get our land back, because our history is tied with it, it is respect for international law,” the President stressed.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that today Ukraine is forced to fight for the right to life at the cost of the lives of its citizens.

“When we return everything ours, we will end this war. I wish Russia would hear people like you (it doesn’t hear us), hear the leaders of the world. I wish it would be put at the negotiating table, and understand the inevitability of punishment and the great erroneousness of its steps,” the President said.

According to the Head of State, any negotiations, including peace talks, should take place through dialogue, not ultimata.

At the same time, Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that the chances of ending the war through diplomacy decrease every time Russian troops commit heinous crimes against Ukrainians, as happened in Bucha and Mariupol.