ROME: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has reaffirmed his strong refusal to cede any territory, resisting US pressure for painful concessions to Russia as he moved ahead Tuesday to rally more European support for his country.<\/p>\n
\u201cUndoubtedly, Russia insists for us to give up territories. We, clearly, don\u2019t want to give up anything. That\u2019s what we are fighting for,\u201d Zelensky told reporters in a WhatsApp chat late Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo we consider ceding any territories? According to the law we don\u2019t have such right,\u201d he said. \u201cAccording to Ukraine\u2019s law, our constitution, international law, and to be frank, we don\u2019t have a moral right either.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an interview with Politico released Tuesday, US President Donald Trump pressed Zelensky to accept the US proposal that Ukraine cede territory to Russia, arguing Moscow has the \u201cupper hand\u201d in its nearly 4-year-old invasion, and that Zelensky\u2019s government must \u201cplay ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zelensky met in Rome with Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, discussing the progress of the peace process, her office said. They emphasized the importance of US and European unity and of solutions \u201cthat will have repercussions on the continent\u2019s security,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
They also discussed \u201cdeveloping robust security guarantees to prevent future aggression and maintaining pressure on Russia to join the negotiating table in good faith,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Zelensky met with Pope Leo XIV at Castel Gandolfo, a papal residence outside Rome. The Vatican said Leo reiterated the need for continuing dialogue and \u201cexpressed his urgent desire that the current diplomatic initiatives bring about a just and lasting peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Holy See has tried to stay neutral in the war while offering solidarity and assistance to what it calls the \u201cmartyred\u201d people of Ukraine. Leo has met three times with Zelensky and has spoken by telephone at least once with Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling for a ceasefire and urging Moscow to make gestures promoting peace.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Zelensky held talks in London with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to strengthen Ukraine\u2019s hand amid mounting impatience from Trump.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ROME: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has reaffirmed his strong refusal to cede any territory, resisting US pressure for painful concessions to Russia as he moved ahead Tuesday to rally more European support for his country. \u201cUndoubtedly, Russia insists for us to give up territories. We, clearly, don\u2019t want to give up anything. That\u2019s what we …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":90812,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90797"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90813,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90797\/revisions\/90813"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}