March 13, 2025

During the negotiations in Saudi Arabia, the delegations did not discuss the issue of concessions and recognition of the territories occupied by Russia, and the territorial status of Ukraine was discussed in the context of events that have occurred since 2014, said Oleksandr Bevz, advisor to the head of the Presidential Office, on Radio Liberty (the “Freedom.Morning” project). According to Bevz, the purpose of the conversation between the delegations was not related to the issue of territorial concessions.

“We discussed how the issue of territories changed, starting with the aggression of the Russian Federation in March 2014. And, by the way, it is very important that the American side also had no doubts that it was then that the aggression began. I understand that for Ukrainians these are obvious things, but, believe me, we have to return to them in order to correctly perceive reality. We considered all the changes in territorial status that occurred, actually starting from that time. Crimea, individual regions of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, then the corresponding changes that occurred after the full-scale invasion. And it seems to me that the purpose of the conversation about territories was not at all about who would sacrifice what. I understand that there is a certain skepticism in society, but there was no question of “you will exchange this for this, and give this, recognize this”,” said Oleksandr Bevz.

The advisor to the head of the OP noted that Ukraine informed representatives of the United States of America that it would never recognize the occupied territories as Russian, and recognition by other countries or organizations could become a “dangerous precedent.”

“There was no discussion of anything related to the fact that Ukraine should accept something somewhere that is Russian and recognize it. And this conversation began with the fact that we emphasized once again that Ukraine will never recognize the occupation. And none of the pieces of Ukrainian land, starting from 2014, which was occupied by Russia, Ukraine does not recognize as part of the Russian Federation. And any such recognition by other subjects of international law, other countries or organizations, is an extremely dangerous precedent. And we did not get the impression that anything has changed on the American side either. At least, there is great hope that they also understand the great danger of such recognitions for world history and geopolitics,” the official said.

According to Oleksandr Bevz, representatives of the Ukrainian delegation have clearly outlined Ukraine’s “red lines”, and a possible temporary ceasefire in Kyiv is considered the first step towards final peace.

“I think that Ukraine clearly outlined at the meeting in Jeddah that there are limits to what is unacceptable. And, accordingly, neither during the ceasefire period nor when achieving final peace, these limits cannot be violated. I emphasize once again that the Ukrainian side does not consider the temporary ceasefire, which we agreed on in the form of a proposal provided by the American side, to be a starting point for departing from some visions of the parties in the process. No, this is the first step aimed at the potential development of the process towards final peace. We do not consider this stage as a stage for making concessions that are unacceptable for the Ukrainian side and in the context of final peace,” the adviser said.

On March 11, a meeting of delegations from Ukraine and the United States took place in Saudi Arabia . During the negotiations, Ukraine agreed to the American side’s proposal to introduce a ceasefire in the war with Russia for 30 days .

The delegations also discussed the importance of humanitarian efforts as part of the peace process, particularly during the ceasefire, including the exchange of prisoners of war, the release of detained civilians, and the return of forcibly displaced Ukrainian children.

US President Donald Trump expressed confidence on March 12 that a ceasefire would be achieved, and his special representative, Steve Witkoff, arrived in Moscow on March 13 to talk to the Kremlin about the situation.

https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/news-op-dzhydda-perehovory-terytorii/33346993.html