Photo: ANDREY BORODULIN/AFP / Getty Images
For: EFE Updated 25 May 2022, 13: 53 pm EDT
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, affirmed that the end of the war depends both on the united position of the West to help Ukraine as well as Russia’s willingness to sit at the negotiating table.
“As for when can this war end? I think depends on some things , on specific things”, he said Zelensky, quoted by the Ukrainian agencies, during his virtual participation in a “Ukrainian breakfast” within the framework of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“ It depends, first of all, on the will of the different parties; the will of a united West regarding Ukraine’s armament and financial strength and the will of a united West not to be afraid to fight against Russia , to fight this hybrid war in different ways, not with their own people, above all”, he said.
“And also depends on the will of Russia , because this war will end anyway”, he underlined.
The Ukrainian president added that there is the military part of the war, with many deaths among innocent civilians and soldiers, and later, he said to be sure, in any case there will be a peace process and there will be a negotiating table, and there will definitely be peace.
The question is with whom, with what president of Russia will negotiate Ukraine, something that also depends on the current head of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, he added.
As for whether it is possible to negotiate with Putin, the Ukrainian leader assured that the Russian president “does not fully realize what is happening and lives in his informational world and does not understand that Ukraine has no intention of leaving anywhere and will not make concessions”.
He was convinced that it only makes sense to negotiate with Putin and not with intermediaries, because “there is no they are nobody”, and added that when the Russian president returns to the real world he will understand that many people and many innocents are dying.
“If he is able to understand something, then surely he will realize that it is necessary to speak and end this war, started by them, by Russia and no one else. And then, perhaps, it will be possible to try, if it is not too late, to follow the diplomatic path”, he said.
He reiterated that it is possible to go from the “bloody war” stage to the “ format of diplomatic negotiations” with the participation of the presidents of Russia and Ukraine and strategic partners.
For this, Russia should give at least “the correct step” of withdrawing the troops to the previous demarcation lines to 24 February, the day of the start of the Russian invasion, noted . However, he said he saw no interest on the Russian side.
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