Heavyweight boxer turned politician Vitali Klitschko made the statement after the Ukrainian capital suffered its worst attack this year.
The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, said Ukraine may, temporarily, have to cede land as part of a peace deal with Russia on Friday.
“One of the scenarios is … to give up territory. It’s not fair. But for the peace, temporary peace, maybe it can be a solution, temporary,” the world champion boxer turned politician told the BBC.
He said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy may be forced to accede to a “painful solution” in order to bring an end to the war, but added that Ukrainians would “never accept occupation” by Moscow.
Klitschko is a political rival of Zelenskyy and the pair have clashed publicly before, with the former boxing champion accusing the president of having “authoritarian tendencies” in an interview with Der Spiegel in 2023.
His comments came after the Ukrainian capital was pounded with missiles and drone attacks on April 24, killing at least 12 people, in the biggest attack on the city this year.
The strikes prompted a rebuke of Russian President Vladimir Putin from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social: “I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Let’s get the Peace Deal DONE!”
Hours later, Trump said: “This next few days is going to be very important. Meetings are taking place right now.
A day earlier, on April 23, Trump had accused Zelenskyy of prolonging the “killing field” by refusing to give up the Crimean Peninsula to Russia as part of a peace deal.
Crimea, which has an ethnic Russian majority, was transferred to the Soviet republic of Ukraine in 1954 by the leader of the Soviet Union at the time, Nikita Khrushchev.
It was included in the state when Ukraine became independent in 1991, but separatists broke away from Kyiv in 2014, and Russia annexed it later that year, after holding a referendum which was regarded by many western powers as illegitimate.
By Guy Birchall
