CNN’s Jim Sciutto Presses John Kirby On Whether US Will Ask Ukraine to Surrender Territory for Peace

CNN’s Jim Sciutto pressed National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby on Wednesday on whether the United States will ask Ukraine to surrender territory in order to achieve a peace agreement.

Interviewing Kirby in Madrid, where NATO members are meeting amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sciutto told Kirby during CNN Newsroom, “CNN’s reporting is that the White House is less optimistic today that Ukraine can gain back the territory that it’s already lost to Russia. You know Ukraine’s view of this, they don’t want to give up any territory.”

Sciutto went on to ask Kirby, “Will this administration ask Ukraine to cede some territory in order to end this war?”

Kirby refuted Sciutto’s premise.

“Two thoughts there. First of all, I would push back on the notion that we’re pessimistic about their ability to conduct a successful counteroffensive. They are doing that, almost every day, in multiple places,” he said. “Now yes, they have challenges and, yes, Russia has made some incremental progress, but it is just that, Jim. It’s incremental, it’s spotty and the Ukrainians have been able to push back and we fully expect they’ll be able to do that going forward.”

Sciutto asked, “You won’t ask them to give up territory to make peace?” Kirby didn’t answer directly.

“This is a victory has got to be decided by [Ukrainian] President [Volodymyr] Zelensky and he gets to decide what that looks like for his country,” said Kirby. “Our job is to make sure that he can continue to defend themselves.”

Watch above, via CNN.

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