ISTANBUL

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated his stance against any territorial concessions to Russia ahead of a European Council meeting later Thursday in Brussels.

"No territorial concessions," stressed Zelenskyy, who is also set to attend the meeting. He has frequently said making such concessions to Moscow is out of the question.

He reaffirmed that a ceasefire is still "possible," emphasizing the need for more pressure on Russia and reiterating the importance of the EU’s latest sanctions package on Russia, which was just passed.

"American sanctions are also very important, and this is a good signal to other countries in the world to join the sanctions," Zelenskyy added.

Zelenskyy's statement came after the US imposed new sanctions Wednesday on Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, citing what it called Moscow’s “lack of serious commitment” to a peace process to end the Ukraine war.

The Treasury Department said in a statement that the measures target Russia’s energy sector to “degrade the Kremlin’s ability to raise revenue for its war machine” and “support its weakened economy.”

The European Union also passed its latest package of sanctions on Russia, the bloc’s foreign policy chief announced on Thursday.

"We just adopted our 19th sanctions package. It targets Russian banks, crypto exchanges, entities in India and China, among others," Kaja Kallas wrote on the US social media company X.