Ukraine may have to give up land for peace

The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, has told the BBC that Ukraine may have to give up land as part of a peace deal with Russia, amid a growing pressure from President Donald Trump to accept territorial concessions.

“One of the scenarios is… to give up territory. It’s not fair. But for the peace, temporary peace, maybe it can be a solution, temporary,” he said in response to questions from the BBC.

But the 53-year-old former boxing champion-turned politician stressed that the Ukrainian people would “never accept occupation” by Russia.

He was speaking hours after a Russian missile-and-drone attack on Kyiv killed 12 people and injured more than 80.

It was one of the deadliest Russian assaults on the Ukrainian capital in months.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory.

Klitschko is now one of the most senior Ukrainian politicians to indicate publicly that his country may have to give up territory, albeit temporarily.

The Kyiv mayor and Zelensky are political opponents. The mayor has repeatedly accused the president and his team of trying to undermine his authority.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme from his office in central Kyiv on Thursday, Klitschko noted that he was “responsible for the capital of Ukraine”, describing it as “the heart” of the war-torn country.

He said President Volodymyr Zelensky might be forced to take a “painful solution” to achieve peace.

When asked whether Zelensky has been discussing with him any details of a possible settlement, Klitschko replied bluntly: “No.”

“President Zelensky does [it] himself. It’s not my function,” he added.

Referring to a very public bust-up between Zelensky and Trump at the White House in February, the mayor suggested that key issues between top politicians would be better discussed “without video cameras”.

Earlier this week, Trump accused Zelensky of harming peace negotiations, after the Ukrainian leader again ruled out recognising Russian control of Crimea, a southern Ukrainian peninsula illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014.

Trump said Crimea “was lost years ago” and was currently “not even a point of discussion”.

But Zelensky pointed to a 2018 “Crimea declaration” by Trump’s then-secretary of state Mike Pompeo saying the US “rejects Russia’s attempted annexation”.

Ukraine and its European allies have in recent weeks expressed alarm over what many on the continent see as Trump’s warming of relations with Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

As talks ramp up, Russian strikes on Ukraine have continued.

On Thursday, an attack on Kyiv killed 12 people and injured dozens, officials said. At a school that was struck, the BBC witnessed the body of a pupil being brought out from the wreckage while classmates quietly cried nearby.

Svetlana, a teacher at the school, spoke of her hurt and added she believed Russia would not stop its aggression if Ukraine gave up Crimea.

“Those who think that Putin will stop if he is given Crimea, they don’t know who the Russians are, he is not going to stop,” she said.

She said Zelensky expresses the opinion of “all of us and we support him”.

Another woman Olga, who had helped rescue workers carry out 10 people, five of whom were dead and the rest injured, was more critical.

“As of now I think it’s better to be away from here because nothing good awaits us here,” she said, adding there “will not be a good solution” for Ukraine.

She said Zelensky “was a comedian and he should have stayed a comedian”.