France’s ex-president Sarkozy urges Ukraine to abandon Russian-occupied areas,  Ukraine says his logic is criminal

He made the statements in an interview with Le Figaro.

According to him, the Armed Forces of Ukraine will not be able to recapture Crimea.

"When it comes to this territory, which was Russian until 1954 and where the majority of the population has always identified as Russian, I believe that any return to the way things were before is an illusion," Sarkozy said.

The former French president proposed to hold another referendum in the occupied Crimea and the "disputed territories" under the control of the international community. He said that if Ukraine fails to completely liberate these lands from the Russians, the choice will be between "a frozen conflict that will inevitably lead to a new hot conflict" and "referendums."

According to Sarkozy, Ukraine "has no place in the EU or NATO" and should remain neutral.

Ukraine's response

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the Office of the President, has characterized Sarkozy's statement as being complicit in a crime.

"The fantastic criminal logic of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in which he justifies Russia's wars of aggression, has once again exposed one of the fundamental causes of today's war. It was the encouragement by Western leaders of Putin's criminal plans to seize foreign lands in 2008 and especially in 2014 that contributed to the beginning of full-scale aggression in Europe and the mass murder of Ukrainians. Sarkozy's encouragement is a direct complicity in a years-long crime," he emphasized.

Podolyak emphasized that there are no "disputed" or "new" territories of Russia.

"You cannot trade other people's territories because you are afraid of someone or because you are friends with criminals. The territories of Crimea and Donbas are the unconditional territories of Ukraine, and therefore the only way to really stop the war is to return international law to these territories," said the advisor.

• In France, Sarkozy was found guilty in a corruption case and received a two-year suspended sentence. Additionally, he will be subject to a year of house arrest with an electronic monitoring bracelet.