Zelenskyy says Ukraine ready to reclaim Crimea diplomatically

Ukraine cannot sacrifice the lives of tens of thousands of Ukrainians to liberate Crimea from Russian occupation, but it can be reclaimed diplomatically, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with Fox News.

"We cannot legally acknowledge any occupied territory of Ukraine as Russian. That is about those territories... occupied by Putin before the full-scale invasion, since 2014. Legally, we are not acknowledging that, we are not adopting that," Zelenskyy said in response to a question about whether he would agree to a peace deal that allows part of Ukraine to remain under Russian control.

The journalist also asked if Ukraine is ready to give up Crimea.

"I was already mentioning that we are ready to bring Crimea back diplomatically. We cannot spend dozens of thousands of our people so that they perish for the sake of Crimea coming back... we understand that Crimea can be brought back diplomatically," the president said.