Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to the comments made by special representative Steve Witkoff regarding the "five territories" that he claims are key to a peace agreement.

Source: Zelensky made these statements during a press conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Odesa, as reported by "Interfax-Ukraine" and "European Truth".

Details: The President emphasized that Ukraine is a sovereign state, and only the Ukrainian people have the authority to discuss its territories.

"All territories belong to Ukraine as a unitary state. Therefore, only the people of Ukraine can discuss the matters concerning our territories. We have clear red lines – to recognize any temporarily occupied territories as Russian instead of Ukrainian," he stated.

"Thus, representatives discussing these issues are overstepping their authority," Zelensky added.

US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff mentioned on Fox News that a peace agreement would include discussions about the "so-called five territories," without specifying what they were.

Earlier, in a notable interview with Tucker Carlson, Witkoff claimed that the "biggest problem in this conflict is the so-called four regions," but when he began to list them, he counted five: "Donbas, Crimea, Luhansk, and two others."

Following these statements, Reuters reported that certain actions and comments from the US envoy regarding the resolution of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine drew criticism within the White House and among Republicans.