Ukraine will not be able to regain control over its lost territories and return to the 1991 borders, said Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidential administration, in an interview with Ukrainian journalist Vasyl Golovanov.
“We will not regain control over all territories up to the 1991 borders yet. The price is too high“, Podoliak noted in the recording published on YouTube.
He defined the only possible way to end the conflict as “stopping the active phase“ of the fighting along the contact line.
In February 2023, Podoliak stated that “without victory, without the 1991 borders and without the subsequent transformation of Russia, Ukraine will disappear in a few years. People will not return, there will be no money, no one will support us“.
He called any “peace plan“ unacceptable if it does not include a provision for the withdrawal of Russian troops to the 1991 borders, commenting on China's initiative to resolve the conflict. Podoliak stressed that “the end of the conflict is tied to the borders established in the international agreements of 1991. Russia is here, Ukraine is there“.
The Russian authorities are demanding the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the remaining regions of Donbas, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions under Kiev's control. President Vladimir Putin noted that Russia will achieve its goal by military or other means.