President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he is ready to meet and negotiate with Russian president Vladimir Putin if he understands that the United States and Europe “will not abandon” Ukraine.
During an interview with the British broadcaster ITV News, Ukraine’s head of state was asked if he was ready to meet with Putin for peace talks. Zelenskyy answered that:“if I had an understanding that America and Europe would not abandon us, that they would support us and give us security guarantees, then I would be ready for any format of negotiations.”
Asked whether he would agree to a freeze in hostilities along the current line of contact if Ukraine had security guarantees, Zelenskyy said: “it depends.” He noted that he would not want to freeze the front line, because “several of our cities, which are cut by this contact line today, will suffer.”
“But if there are such prospects, if we understand how the end of the war will develop further, if we can come to a just and sustainable peace for Ukraine and Ukrainians through real diplomacy, then we need to understand what security guarantees are,” he said.
Furthermore, Zelenskyy noted that ”if NATO says: “We are ready to give you NATO, but we cannot give you NATO where there is fighting,” this is fair, we would accept it. There are a lot of questions, a lot of details, all of which need to be discussed.”
We will return our territories when Russia is weak
Zelenskyy was also asked on the matter of the occupied territories, specifically, when and if, Ukraine will be able to return these territories. The President of Ukraine believes that Ukraine will be able to return the occupied territories when Russia is weak.
“[Our] sovereignty was violated by Russia. Therefore, at the moment when Russia is weak – and it will certainly be – everything will return at that moment,” he said.
Ukraine’s head of state added that ”our task is to return everything as soon as possible, and to return it diplomatically. Because the loss of people is very painful. People are more important than anything else.”
When asked if he would ever see the Ukrainian flag in the currently occupied cities of Sevastopol, Mariupol and Donetsk, Zelenskyy said: “Yes, I am sure of it.”
Related:
- ISW: Russia expands military forces, signaling no interest in peace talks with Ukraine
- Reuters: Ukraine prioritizes security guarantees ahead of potential Trump-Putin meeting
- NATO chief Rutte: New treaty between Ukraine and Russia must prevent future Russian aggression
- Kremlin neither confirms nor denies Trump’s claim about Putin call
- Trump says he talked to Putin, who allegedly “does care” about battlefield casualties
