The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, said Ukraine may, temporarily, have to cede land as part of a peace deal with Russia on Friday.
“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,” the world champion boxer turned politician told the BBC.
He said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy may be forced to accede to a “painful solution” in order to bring an end to the war, but added that Ukrainians would “never accept occupation” by Moscow.
His comments came after the Ukrainian capital was pounded with missiles and drone attacks on April 24, killing at least 12 people, in the biggest attack on the city this year.
Hours later, Trump said: “This next few days is going to be very important. Meetings are taking place right now.
“I think we’re going to make a deal ... I think we’re getting very close.”
A day earlier, on April 23, Trump had accused Zelenskyy of prolonging the “killing field” by refusing to give up the Crimean Peninsula to Russia as part of a peace deal.
Crimea, which has an ethnic Russian majority, was transferred to the Soviet republic of Ukraine in 1954 by the leader of the Soviet Union at the time, Nikita Khrushchev.
It was included in the state when Ukraine became independent in 1991, but separatists broke away from Kyiv in 2014, and Russia annexed it later that year, after holding a referendum which was regarded by many western powers as illegitimate.
The Ukrainian leader—who was elected president in 2019 and has remained in power in the absence of elections, which have been deferred until the war is over—has repeatedly said he will not agree to hand over any territory that Russia has occupied since the February 2022 invasion.
Zelenskyy pointed out on April 24 that Ukraine had agreed to the cease-fire proposal put forward by the United States 44 days ago, but that Moscow had continued its attacks.
Witkoff has emerged as Washington’s premier negotiator with Putin as Trump pushes to end the war, and has already had three meetings with the Russian leader.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine the attacks continued, with five people, including a child, killed, Ukrainian officials said on Friday.
Three of the victims were killed in the city of Pavlohrad after a drone strike, said Serhiy Lysak, governor of the central Dnipropetrovsk region.
He said that 14 were wounded in an attack on a five-storey building, including a six-year-old boy and two teenagers.
Five of the wounded were still in hospital, he added, without specifying at what time the attack occurred.
“Unfortunately, there are already three dead in Pavlohrad. Among them is a child,” he later added.
Donetsk regional prosecutors said that two people had been killed in a separate attack early on Friday on the settlement of Yarova, where the Russian army dropped an aerial bomb on to a residential building.
