Zelenskyy Marks Ukraine’s 35th Independence Day With Defiant Stand Against Territorial Concessions
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday said his country is determined to achieve peace via diplomatic means while refusing to accept any kind of compromise that will entail giving up its territory, delivering a speech in Kyiv where foreign dignitaries have arrived to celebrate Ukraine’s 35th Independence Day.
In the speech recorded in front of St Michael’s golden domed monastery, Zelenskyy ruled out Russia’s insistence that Ukraine give away the rest of its Donbas territories still under Kyiv’s control, a stance that Kyiv has maintained for more than four years now.
Zelenskyy also said that conceding the territories to Russia won’t even ensure peace as it could allow Moscow to sell it to the world that handing over Donbas means solving the problem.
The address came as Britain’s Prime Minister Andy Burnham made his first visit to Kyiv since taking office, alongside European Council President Antonio Costa, Moldovan President Maia Sandu, Estonian President Alar Karis and Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Luc Frieden, among other dignitaries marking Ukraine’s break from the Soviet Union three and a half decades ago.
Burnham was expected to announce British assistance for expanding Ukraine’s domestic long-range missile production and to co-chair a virtual session of the so-called Coalition of the Willing, a bloc of nations backing Kyiv militarily, alongside French President Emmanuel Macron.
Zelenskyy used the occasion to press allies for tougher sanctions against Moscow and renewed pressure to bring Russia to the negotiating table, voicing hope that Washington’s remaining hesitations over confronting Russia directly would soon dissolve.
The speech landed against a stagnant battlefield backdrop: front lines have barely shifted in months, and more than a year of American-brokered peace efforts have yielded little visible progress. Instead, both sides have escalated aerial strikes, with missile and drone attacks continuing to kill civilians and damage infrastructure on both sides of the border.
Zelenskyy’s remarks signal that, despite mounting war fatigue and economic strain, Kyiv intends to hold its red line on territorial integrity as any future negotiations resume.
