Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky On Saturday, he insisted that diplomacy was the only way to end Russia’s invasion of his country, even as peace talks continued to falter.
“There are things that can only be reached at the negotiating table,” Zelensky said in an interview with a Ukrainian news channel.
Ukraine has so far been able to prevent Russia from achieving its initial military objectives, defeating invading forces from the capital, Kyiv, and the northern city of Kharkiv. Fighting is now focused on the eastern Donbass region, which has been controlled by pro-Russian separatist forces for several years. Zelensky also made his comments on Saturday, the is Times of Israel mentioned Russian forces destroyed a shipment of weapons destined for Ukraine from allied countries.
Zelensky stressed that the fighting would continue while a diplomatic solution was sought, and that it would be “bloody” and “can only end definitively through diplomacy.” The leader also added that his government would only accept “fair” ceasefire terms for Ukraine.
Sergey Sobinsky/AFP via Getty Images
Numerous rounds of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia have stalled over the course of nearly three months of military conflict, with each country unwilling to accept the terms put forward by the other. Ukraine, in particular, has said it will not negotiate its territorial claims and national sovereignty.
“We want everything back,” Zelensky summed up in the interview. Russia does not want to give up anything.
“Discussions between Ukraine and Russia will take place categorically. And in what form I do not know – with mediators, without them, in a wider group, at the presidential level.”
Zelensky also used the interview as an opportunity To pay tribute to the Ukrainian military For their fight against Russia, claiming that they broke the “backbone” of “one of the most powerful armies in the world”.
“We have already done that,” he added. “Including psychologically. They will not be on their feet again in the next few years. But let’s not forget that all our soldiers also want to live.”
Contrasting views of his successor, former President Petro Poroshenko He said in an interview on Saturday with the current time Russian President Vladimir Putin It can only be dealt with by force.
Putin understands only strength, [and he] He will go as far as the world allows,” Poroshenko said. We cannot create a precedent for the world – and more so in Europe – where one country can change forcefully [borders]. “
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