"We cannot legally recognize any occupied territory of Ukraine as Russian. This concerns those territories... occupied by Putin prior to the full-scale invasion, since 2014. Legally, we do not recognize this, we do not accept it," said Zelensky.
He also addressed the question of whether he is willing to give up Crimea in search of a peace agreement to end the war.
"I have already stated that we are ready to return Crimea through diplomatic means. We cannot afford to lose tens of thousands of our people for the sake of reclaiming Crimea... We understand that Crimea can be returned through diplomacy," the president responded.