Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that he is not in favor of reacquiring the occupied territories in Donbas by military means, or declaring martial law in the country.

"I ran in the election as a president of peace. The society didn't vote for a president who would come and say that from this day on, it's martial law, war, that we will fight, that our army is ready and we will unleash a war in Donbas and will take back our territories by war," Zelensky said at a press marathon in Kyiv on Thursday.

The president also said that he has chosen a diplomatic path because he is not ready to lose people.

Reiterating his opposition to the introduction of martial law in Ukraine, Zelensky said: "We have inherited a lot from my predecessor, Petro Poroshenko: the war, corruption, PrivatBank, and [TV] channels' licenses. We have inherited a great deal. But all this can't be solved by military methods," he said.

Zelensky said that he would like to try to "find steps" toward peace with the help of the Minsk and Normandy formats.

"I don't want to scare our people. Do you remember the former president trying to declare martial law in certain regions of Ukraine? Do you remember what happened to people, how people reacted? There was fear, panic that it is necessary to flee, leave the country. What do you want? [Do you want] chaos? I don't want chaos," he said.