The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, answered the question about what conditions must be met in order for him to agree to negotiations with the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin.
He stated this during the 17th annual meeting of the Yalta European Strategy (YES) — "Ukraine: In defense of our common freedom."
"You can even communicate with terrorists, because they know what they want. There is no certainty that they will do what they said. I think they wonʼt. No one believes. [They are] not to be handshaked for what they have done. And not even for what they have done, but in what format: not according to the rules of war, but [they just] went to a peaceful person, raped, tortured and killed [it]. This is not a terrorist, because he would do it for something. Who is this, what is this? They are not even terrorists. That is, terrorists who do not know what they want and are ready to give an ultimatum," Zelensky said.
According to Zelensky, the Russians must first come to a different status — "become just an enemy" so that it is possible to open a diplomatic corridor with them, move away from the Ukrainian border, show the political will that they are ready to give back foreign land, and "then you can will talk to them about some corridors that open the way to certain steps."
"Until they are ready to change their status, to admit that they are occupiers, to say: ʼ[Itʼs a] great tragedy, historical mistake, we went back.ʼ If they are not ready, then there is no political will, they are not ready to recognize the occupation of our state. Until that moment, there will be no meaningful dialogue," the president added.
- The last face-to-face talks between Ukraine and Russia took place on March 29 in Istanbul. Then the Ukrainian side offered the Russian Federation a draft agreement on its own security guarantees and neutral status. The document declared Ukraineʼs accession to the EU and provided for negotiations with the Kremlin regarding the fate of occupied Crimea over the next 15 years.