Russia will not give up the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions: what this means for negotiations.

Russia does not plan to retreat from the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions

Russia has no intention of retreating from the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions due to their strategic importance for access to Crimea, the Washington Post reports.

This was reported by the Washington Post on Sunday, August 10.

Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions

According to the publication, Russia has presented these territories as key in negotiations and generally does not intend to give them up, even on the condition of a ceasefire. This particularly concerns a possible exchange with the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which, according to some sources, was proposed by the Kremlin.

At the same time, European leaders say that a ceasefire must first be established as a prerequisite for further negotiations, rather than using threats of pressure to resolve the conflict.

Previously, it was suggested that a possible exchange of territories could be part of a peace agreement to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine.