President Zelensky says Ukraine MUST remove Russia from all its territory or “the war will simply be frozen until it starts again” – as his troops continue to push back Putin’s forces

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned Moscow to withdraw from all occupied territories if a lasting solution to the war is needed.

Speaking to the Financial Times, President Zelenskyy said Putin’s troops must be withdrawn from all Ukrainian lands if there is any hope of an end to the war.

“We must return all lands,” said Mr. Zelensky said, “because I believe that the battlefield is the way to go when there is no diplomacy. If you don’t get your country back in full, the war will just freeze. It’s only a matter of time before it again happen.”

The Ukrainian leader’s comments came amid growing fears from Western allies that the war could escalate – particularly if Ukraine tried to retake Crimea, the region Russia illegally seized during its 2014 annexation.

The West fears that if Ukraine tries to take back Crimea, Putin may respond to his threats and use nuclear weapons.

The president of Ukraine acknowledged that Crimea’s fate is of increasing concern to the international community, but said: “If anyone is willing to offer us a way to relieve Crimea non-military, I will be all for it. “

Ukraine has come under increasing fire in recent weeks, with Putin’s forces targeting the country’s critical infrastructure in hopes of forcing Ukraine to make territorial concessions.

Mr Zelensky said he firmly believed that Russia’s tactic of destroying critical infrastructure would not stop his country from liberating its own.

Putin’s forces fired about 70 rockets at Ukraine’s main infrastructure this week. About 80 percent of the country was shrouded in darkness and had no access to water.

Mr Zelensky said he firmly believed that Russia’s tactics of destroying infrastructure would not stop his country from liberating its own territory. Mr. Zelensky is pictured in Kiev earlier this week

Putin’s men stand still as the renewed wave of attacks on infrastructure suggests that Mocow intends to weaponize the onset of winter. The Russian president is photographed in Moscow on Thursday

Power grid strikes left residents of the entire Kyiv region, the western city of Lyiv, the northern city of Kharkiv and the southern Odessa region without electricity.

All of Ukraine’s 15 nuclear reactors were also shut down due to unstable power supplies, with the bombing also blacking out half of neighboring Moldova.

“It was the kind of incident that hasn’t happened in I don’t know how many years, maybe 80, 90 years: a country on the European continent where there was no light,” said the Ukrainian leader.

The attacks on infrastructure have left Ukraine short of transformer units to restore its depleted power grid. The Financial Times reported that Ukraine is seeking replacement transformer units from Poland and Lithuania.

Putin’s men will not back down as the renewed wave of attacks on infrastructure suggests Mocow intends to to make the dawn of winter his weapon.

Zelenskyy said the attacks on civilian infrastructure show that Russia has no plans to negotiate an end to the war anytime soon.

But Kiev has also rejected any suggestion from Western allies that it would be open to discussion and negotiations to end the now nine-month-old war.