Ukraine's president says 1991 borders must be recognised - adviser

[March 17, 2022]   LVIV, Ukraine (Reuters) - Ukraine's president has not altered his position that the international borders in place when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 must continue to be recognised, a presidential adviser said on Thursday.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy delivers a video address to senators and members of the House of Representatives gathered in the Capitol Visitor Center Congressional Auditorium at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., March 16, 2022. REUTERS/Sarah Silbiger/Pool

Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 but the region is still regarded by the United Nations as part of Ukraine. Russia has also recognised declarations of independence by two self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine which rose up against Kyiv's rule in 2014.

Those two areas and Crimea were part of Ukraine when it declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said repeatedly since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 that he will not compromise on his country's "territorial integrity."

"His main position has not changed," Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Zelenskiy, said on national television. "We will never give up our national interests."

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Writing by Alessandra Prentice, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

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