VICE News

Ukraine's President Insists The War Hasn't Been Lost: Russian Roulette (Dispatch 79) (2x87)

: 11, 2014

On Monday, September 8, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko visited Mariupol — where the ceasefire was broken just a few days earlier — to boost morale and hand out medals to Ukrainian soldiers. VICE News correspondent Simon Ostrovsky was there, and asked President Poroshenko at the press conference whether he thought he had lost the war in Eastern Ukraine. President Poroshenko adamantly repeated that the war had not been lost, despite the fact that a great deal of territory in the East was still not under Ukrainian control. He also emphasized that he is optimistic this territory will be gained back, because the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine is not a matter of negotiation.