Ukraine’s President Voldymyr Zelensky has made a revealing nine-word admission about the state of his forces in the war with Russia as he makes a major plea to the West.

He admitted that, while he would never recognise Russian rule, his troops are not able to regain Russian-controlled territories that once belonged to his country.

Zelensky told French outlet La Parisien: “We cannot give up our territories. The Ukrainian constitution forbids us to do so. De facto, these territories are now controlled by the Russians.”

He added the nine words: “We do not have the strength to recover them.”

The president also urged the West to put diplomatic pressure on Vladimir Putin to reliquish the once-Ukrainian territories, of which there are seven, and consider negotiations to end the war.

He said:”We can only count on diplomatic pressure from the international community to force Putin to sit down at the negotiating table.

“It’s not about who sits across from you; it’s about the position you’re in when negotiating. I don’t believe we’re in a weak position, but we’re also not in a strong one.

“First, we need to develop a model, an action plan, a peace plan — call it what you will. Then, we can present it to Putin or, more broadly, to the Russian people.”

According to a report by the US State Department, Russia currently occupies Crimea and parts of Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Luhansk, Mykolayiv, and Zaporizhzhya Oblasts.

Last month, Zelensky suggested that Ukraine could let Russia keep them in exchange for NATO membership, but the alliance remains vague on when Ukraine will be invited to join.

Despite calling for Putin to “sit down at the negotiating table”, Zelensky prohibited Ukraine from holding peace talks with the Russian president in 2022.

Putin’s stance remains strong: Russia will only withdraw troops from Ukraine if it surrenders Crimea and four other regions it maintains are its own.

Ukraine would also have to withdraw troops from Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, two cities with a combined pre-war population of roughly 1 million.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said last Friday: “We don’t want a ceasefire, we want peace, after our conditions are met and all our goals are achieved.”