Kellogg said that the Russian Federation will not give up the occupied territories of Ukraine
The special envoy of US President Donald Trump, Keith Kellogg, said that Russia does not plan to relinquish control over the occupied Ukrainian territories, although legally these lands do not belong to it. Such a situation complicates the prospects of settlement and requires further negotiations, informs Fox News.
Kellogg noted that Russia actually controls the Luhansk region, while in Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson it holds only a part of the territories. According to him, this raises a number of questions.
“The question arises: what will the situation look like in the future? What are the real territorial gains?”, — noted Kellogg.
He emphasized the importance of distinguishing between de facto and legal control in any end-of-war scenario. Although Russia keeps the occupied lands under its control, from a legal point of view these territories remain Ukrainian.
“And here it is necessary to distinguish between de facto and de jure. De facto means that they physically occupied the territory and will not go anywhere from it. But de jure it cannot be said that you have completely annexed it. The international community does not recognize this territory as part of Russia. Such difficult discussions have yet to be held.”, Kellogg explained.
According to him, for a political solution to the conflict, it is necessary to clearly understand the positions of both sides and reduce them to a possible compromise that will partially satisfy both Ukraine and Russia.
“I think we need to get what can be called a technical task. What do the Ukrainians want? What do the Russians want? Then we should bring these positions together and find an option that maybe satisfies both sides. But of course, neither of them will get everything they want.”, – summed up the special envoy of the US president.
