«Up to 1%, not 20%»: Zelenskyy argues over map of occupied territories

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he disagreed with the percentage of temporarily occupied territories depicted on a map in the White House.

He said this at a briefing in Washington after meeting with US President Donald Trump.

A map of Ukraine was displayed in the Oval Office before the talks, with the eastern part of the country — approximately 20% of the territory — marked in pink as occupied by Russia.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked for the map, but during the talks, he stressed that this figure was not true. According to him, over the 1000 days of the war, the Russians captured about 1% of the territory, not 20%.

«People think 20% or 18%, but it's up to 1%. This changes the focus a little bit,» the president explained.

He also stressed that the situation, for example, with Crimea is different from frontline battles, and therefore it cannot be assumed that the Russian army is massively seizing new territories.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy added that the conversation with Trump was «good, warm and substantive», and «he is ready to discuss the issue of territories» only directly with Vladimir Putin.

Zelenskyy's meeting with Trump at the White House

On 18 August, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived at the White House for talks with US President Donald Trump. European leaders also arrived in Washington.

Following the talks, Trump and Zelensky called the bilateral meeting «very good». Afterwards, the US president had a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin and said he had begun preparations for a face-to-face meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian leaders.

This happened a few days after the talks between Trump and Putin in Alaska. The US president rated that meeting at «10 out of 10» and said that he would refrain from additional sanctions or other «serious consequences» for Russia, which he had previously promised.