Zelensky rules out ceding territory to Russia in late-night address to Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that he would not cede his country’s land despite escalating tensions with Russia amid the possibility of an invasion.

“We are committed to the peaceful and diplomatic path, we will follow it and only it,” Zelensky said, according to Reuters. “But we are on our own land, we are not afraid of anything and anybody, we owe nothing to no one, and we will give nothing to no one.”

The president also accused Moscow of violating Ukraine’s sovereign territory and called for an emergency meeting of the leaders from Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France as well as support from Ukraine’s allies, Reuters reported.

“We expect clear and effective steps of support from our partners,” Zelensky said. “It is very important to see who is our real friend and partner, and who will continue to scare the Russian Federation with words.”

Zelensky’s remarks come after Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday recognized two separatist regions in east Ukraine, known as the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic, as independent, signaling the rejection of diplomatic attempts to cease a potential further invasion of the country. 

Putin also said that he would send “peacekeepers” to those regions as well, a move that U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield called “nonsense” during an emergency meeting on Monday night. 

“He has since announced that he will place Russian troops in these regions. He calls them peacekeepers,” Thomas-Greenfield said of Putin at an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting. “This is nonsense. We know what they really are.”

Moscow has amassed as many as 190,000 troops near Ukraine as U.S. officials continue to warn that Kyiv is on the brink of a possible invasion.