Ceding territories means giving up on millions of Ukrainian people there, says Ukrainian POW

euronews (in English)

“Everyone who is in the occupied territories is a hostage of the Russian regime,” Ukrainian journalist and human rights activist Maksym Butkevych, who spent over two years in Russian captivity, told Euronews.

Transcript

00:00Hello.

00:01Hello.

00:02Ukrainian journalist and human rights activist Maxim Budkavich spent over two years in Russian

00:07captivity.

00:08He enlisted in the Ukrainian military in February 2022 and then got captured by Russian forces

00:13and sentenced to 13 years in Russian prison.

00:17Euronews met Budkavich in Brussels on the day when the delegations from the U.S. and

00:21Russia sat down for the first talks about Ukraine but without Ukraine at the table.

00:27He says anyone who thinks that Ukrainian people can be just ordered what to do plays right

00:31into the Kremlin ideology.

00:57He says that Ukraine and Ukrainians are instruments that were taken over by the Americans and Europeans

01:08and should be kept by Russia.

01:11I am afraid that other international actors and players who are now putting themselves

01:16in Ukraine's shoes, they show the same imperial approach that deprives Ukraine of its own

01:24subjectivity.

01:25And they are very much in this world view to Vladimir Putin, a war criminal, the initiator

01:31of the most terrible, most bloody battle in Europe since the Second World War.

01:39Any imposed territorial concessions would be unacceptable for Ukrainians, Budkavich says,

01:45especially for those living in the occupied parts of Ukraine.

01:51My biggest concern is the people who live in these territories.

01:54Because we are talking about millions of our fellow citizens.

01:58And judging by what I saw in Poland, especially what concerns civilians who are in Russian

02:04captivity, all those who are in the occupied territories are hostages of the Russian regime.

02:10I can't help but imagine that we will just say, yes, take the hostages of millions of our

02:18fellow citizens.

02:20I understand that some politicians of a large international scale are talking about this.

02:26But for me personally, this is unacceptable.

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