Ukraine minister repeats red lines in parliament speech

Ukraine will not accept "peace at any price" in its war with Russia, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has told parliament in Kyiv.

"We will not agree to recognise any temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine as Russian," Sybiha said.

He added that Ukraine would not agree to any restrictions on the structure or size of its armed forces, reductions in its defence industry or limitations on foreign military aid or the presence of foreign troops in Ukraine - all preconditions set by Russia for a possible peace deal.

Sybiha indicated that Ukraine was sticking to its plans to join the NATO military alliance.

Ukraine would not accept any limitation of any kind on its sovereignty or its domestic or foreign policy, specifically not on its alliances, he said.

Ukraine would work actively to join NATO even if there was currently no consensus on the issue among alliance members.

Neither Russia nor other countries would have a veto in this regard, he said.

The US administration has been floating the possibility of recognising the Crimean peninsula as Russian territory and freezing the conflict along the current frontline.

Ukraine's parliament will hold a vote on May 8 to ratify a minerals deal signed with the United States earlier this week, an MP said on Friday, while the prime minister suggested the agreement will help Ukraine with supplies of air defence systems.

Ukraine and the US signed a deal on Wednesday that will give the United States preferential access to new investments in extraction of Ukraine's natural resources, and fund investment in Ukraine's reconstruction.

According to the deal, new military aid, if provided by the US to Ukraine, could be scored as the US contribution to the joint fund being set up under the accord.

"This agreement will allow us to better defend our country here and now - to better protect our skies thanks to American air defence systems," Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said at the governmental meeting.

MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak published the date of the upcoming ratification vote on the Telegram messaging app.

Zheleznyak also cited Shmyhal as telling parliament on Friday that two of the documents related to the deal covered its implementation and would not need to be ratified by MPs.

Ukraine's cabinet registered a bill with parliament to ratify the minerals deal with the US late on Thursday, according to the parliamentary database.

"We want to ratify it as soon as possible. So we plan to do it within the coming weeks," First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on Thursday.

with Reuters