The president of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelensky, is clear about his “red lines” for a possible peace agreement with Russia.
Any agreement will depend on the withdrawal of Russian forces to the positions prior to the invasion, Zelensky said this Friday when speaking by videoconference from kyiv with Chatham House, a center of ideas based in London, .
“That is the least that my country would accept ”, said the president, who defines himself as the leader of all of Ukraine, “not of a mini Ukraine”.
He did not refer, without However, to Crimea, the area that Russia annexed in 2014.
Russia is currently fighting to take full control of Mariupol, which it would be his greatest achievement in two months of war and it would give the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, something to celebrate on Monday, May 9, which is the Day of Victory, day that marks the Soviet victory over Nazism in World War II.
“For p To start the war, the step should be to return to the situation of 23 February”, he said in response to a question from the BBC referring to the day before the start of the war. Russian invasion.
“I was elected by the people of Ukraine as president of Ukraine, not as president of a mini-Ukraine. This is a very important point”.
The reference to the situation of 23 February suggests that Ukraine would not insist on retaking Crimea as condition to sign peace with Russia.
Zelensky also called for the recovery of the diplomatic dialogue between the two countries: “Although they destroyed almost all our bridges, I don’t think all the bridges are destroyed, figuratively speaking”.
- “Those who support the anti-imperialist stance overlooks the fact that Russia is an empire and much more cruel than the US, at least for Eastern Europeans”
Russia, for its part, affirms that the dialogue process is “stalled”.
Zelensky also said that he had invited the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, to visit Ukraine on Monday, May 9. The presence of the German leader on the day that Russia commemorates the victory in the Second World War would be very symbolic.
“You can take this powerful and intelligent political step of coming to kyiv on May 9,” he said Zelensky, who has been critical of Germany’s position during the war as he accuses it of blocking European efforts to stop buying Russian energy.