‘No more bad deals’: Yermak says Ukraine won’t compromise on territorial integrity

“The president’s position, the position of our entire team, remains unchanged. We cannot make compromises on our independence, territorial integrity, or sovereignty. This is where Ukraine stands, and from this position, we truly want peace—no one in the world wants it more than Ukrainians. But it must be a just and lasting peace, backed by ironclad security guarantees. Because, as you all know, we have a very bad history of agreements that, unfortunately, did not work,” Yermak said.

He also announced that he and Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko would participate in a new round of talks with U.S. partners on Feb. 23.

Ukraine’s foreign policy status

On Feb. 19, Andrii Yermak met with Keith Kellogg, the U.S. president’s special representative for Ukraine and Russia under Donald Trump. On Feb. 15, Kellogg said he aimed to prepare proposals for ending the war unleashed by Russia against Ukraine within a short period—”days and weeks.”

On Feb. 18, the first negotiations between the U.S. and Russia since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The talks lasted 4.5 hours. Both the U.S. and Russia described them as positive, saying they reached agreements on several areas of cooperation.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated that Ukraine would never accept Moscow’s ultimatums or recognize any agreements reached without its participation.

After the talks, Trump made several statements closely aligned with Russian propaganda. He dismissed Ukraine’s outrage over its exclusion from the negotiations in Riyadh and blamed Kyiv for Russia’s invasion. He also falsely claimed that Zelenskyy’s approval rating had dropped to 4%, despite polling by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology showing trust in the Ukrainian president exceeding 50%.

Trump further accused Ukraine of squandering “$350 billion in U.S. aid” and said Russia could quickly destroy Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, but was “saving its missiles.”

U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz said that Trump is not influenced by the Kremlin and can effectively confront Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, as well as conduct complex negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.