Macron: Ukrainians realize they won’t be able to regain all their lands

French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday evening that Ukrainians realize they won’t be able to regain all their lands once the war between them and Russia ends.

Macron also stressed in an interview with TF1 television that Kyiv would not join NATO due to the lack of consensus on the issue.

“The war must end, and Ukraine must be in the best possible position to enter into negotiations,” the French president said, “that would allow the territorial issue to be addressed. Even the Ukrainians themselves realize that they won’t be able to recover everything that has been seized since 2014” by Russia.

Macron didn’t specify the areas that Kyiv is unlikely to regain control over.

The Russian army currently occupies approximately 20% of Ukrainian territory, and Moscow has announced the annexation of four Ukrainian regions located in the south and east of its neighbor, in addition to the Crimean Peninsula, which it annexed in 2014.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged his country’s Western allies not to gift any Ukrainian territory to Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war, at a time when Washington appears to be considering recognizing the territories occupied by Moscow.

In this regard, Macron stressed, “I’ve always said that the war must end… Ukraine must be in the best possible position to enter into negotiations”.

The French president defended the goal of reaching a ceasefire now, above all, because there are thousands of deaths every day, and more and more civilians.

He added, “We cannot leave Ukraine to its fate… Since it won’t join NATO, we propose sending reassurance forces”.

He explained, “This means that all allies are prepared – and this is the case with the British, the French, and some other countries – to deploy forces stationed far from the front line, in key locations, to conduct joint operations and demonstrate our solidarity in doing so”.