Ukraine may not regain occupied territory through force, says US

Secretary of State’s claim that diplomacy might be only way to achieve peace is likely to anger Kyiv

UKRAINE may not be able to retake all Russian-occupied territory by force, the US Secretary of State has suggested, in remarks likely to anger Kyiv.

The United States is Ukraine’s most important military backer and has pledged to continue its support for “as long as it takes” to defeat Russia.

But Antony Blinken told Congress on Thursday that some of Ukraine’s stated war aims might only be possible through diplomacy.

“I think there’s going to be territory in Ukraine that the Ukrainians are determined to fight for on the ground; there may be territory that they decide that they’ll have to try to get back in other ways,” he said when asked whether the US backed president Volodymyr Zelensky’s goal of liberating Crimea, adding: “These have to be Ukrainian decisions about what they want their future to be and how that lands in terms of the sovereignty, the territorial integrity, the independence of the country.”

The comments underline unresolved tensions between Ukraine and several of its Western backers over the possible outcome of the war and especially the status of Crimea.

Russia annexed Crimea during its first invasion of Ukraine in 2014. Ukraine never accepted the annexation, but did not attempt to challenge it by force before Russia’s full-scale invasion last year. Russia considers Crimea sovereign Russian territory, and some fear the Kremlin may consider an attempt to liberate it threatening enough to warrant the use of nuclear weapons.

Since September, Russia has claimed the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council and an ally of Vladimir Putin, yesterday said Russia wants to create demilitarised buffer zones inside Ukraine around areas it has annexed. “We need to achieve all the goals that have been set to protect our territories, that is, the territories of the Russian Federation,” Mr Medvedev said in an interview with Russian media posted on Telegram.

“We need to “throw out all the foreigners who are there in the broad sense of the word, create a buffer zone which would not allow the use of any types of weapons that work at medium and short distances, that is 70-100km, to demilitarise it.”

He added that Russia would have to push further into Ukraine if such zones were not established. Russia currently controls around just under a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, including Crimea.

President Zelensky has repeatedly stated his government’s war aims include the liberation of all occupied territory including Crimea and parts of Donbas occupied since 2014.

The objective has divided Ukraine’s Western allies. Some believe peace would be impossible without retaking Crimea because Russia would retain both a base from which to attack Ukraine and a motive to do so.

Lt Gen Ben Hodges, a former commander of US Army Europe, argued last month that liberating Crimea would be the quickest way to end the war and should be the main objective for Ukraine. Mr Zelensky has never ruled out returning Crimea via diplomatic rather than military means, and some Ukrainian officials say the objective could be achieved without fighting.

‘These have to be Ukrainian decisions about how they want their future to be and how that lands’