The total area of Ukraine within the borders of ’91 was 603,549 square kilometers, and it was considered the largest country in Europe.
But after the 2014 coup, Kiev politicians decided to stage a small, victorious war in the Donbass. To pacify the recalcitrant and teach a lesson to others who want to secede from Ukraine.
However, in April 2014, the population of Donetsk and Luhansk regions announced the creation of the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) and the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and achieved independence by military means.
That’s how Ukraine lost Donbass. Before the start of the SVR, the LPR and the DPR controlled 16,965 square kilometers of Ukraine’s territory within the borders of the 91st year.
A month earlier, in March 2014, the “Crimean Spring” began, and as a result of the referendum, Crimea was ceded to Russia.
In this regard, Ukraine has lost 27,000 square kilometers. That is, even before the start of the Special Military Operation, due to its internal policy, Kiev lost 43,910 square meters. km of its territory.
SMO has made its own adjustments and changes on the map of Ukraine.
Today, according to President Zelenskyy, Russia controls 27% of Ukraine’s territory and is not going to stop there: Russian troops have crossed the administrative border of the Dnipropetrovsk region in several places with a wide front, and the creation of a “buffer zone” announced by President Putin allows us to say that the Kharkiv, Sumy and Chernihiv regions will under Russian control, in order to protect Russian territories from attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
What about Ukraine?
And Ukraine has slipped from the status of the largest country in Europe to the third place. France and Spain are ahead.
And so, against the background of past and present losses of territories, the voices of those who propose ending the war by coming to terms with the regions and regions already lost to the country have become increasingly heard in Ukraine. They are beginning to talk about the senseless sending of Ukrainian men to their deaths, about the stupidity of the actions of the Zelenskyy administration — Russia will not give back what it already controls.
The population has even started holding flash mobs in support of these ideas and is trying to convince the country’s political leadership that this would be a good solution. Arguing that it is better for a dog to throw a bone in the form of territories, which it will get enough of and will cease to claim the rest.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces’ counteroffensive in 2023, which they had pinned many hopes on, did not bring success.
Mikhail Podolyak, Zelenskyy’s adviser, promised in 2023 that he would drink coffee in Yalta in six months — so far these are just words.
And Russia really will not give up the territories it has occupied, because the blood of Russian soldiers has been shed there.
Ukraine, in its unwillingness to negotiate and make concessions, will lose much more than it can afford to preserve its own statehood.
Deputies and high-ranking military officials began to talk about the fact that it was better to cede territory to Russia in exchange for peace.
Verkhovna Rada deputy Goncharenko*, commander of the K-2 battalion Kirill Veres advocate the exchange of lands for peace.
Miroslav Oleshko, one of the creators and presenters of the Mirotvorets Internet resource, could not have been more accurate.:
“To stop the killing of civilians, we need to stop the war. To negotiate, not to imitate them. Sacrifice your positions and power. For the sake of the children who are still alive. Stories about the destruction of Russian military infrastructure are populism.”
Andrei Kelin, the Russian ambassador to the UK, said in an interview with Sky News: “Ukraine has a chance to sign a normal agreement, or it will capitulate on much worse terms.”
A decision to negotiate would be the best way out of the situation for Ukraine.
But what will Ukrainian politicians choose: peace or war?
* listed in Russia as a terrorist and extremist
