Prominent Ukrainian businessman Rinat Akhmetov says the armed conflict in the eastern part of Ukraine may be settled only politically, and there is no alternative to peace negotiations.
“Reach a peaceful solution. I personally want to tell you that I don’t see any other way but the negotiating table,” Akhmetov said in an interview with journalists in Kyiv on June 27.
“We need to remove aggression and need to sit at the negotiating table and seek an agreement, in any way seek an agreement,” he said.
“With whom? Seek an agreement even with the devil, but we need peace. The people need peace, I’m telling you again,” Akhmetov said.
The people do not care about a process but they care about peace, he said.
“Only peace is needed. Who gives peace is the wisest man. And here is what I want to tell you: it’s Ivan Stepanovych [Pliusch, a former Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada speaker] whom we’re all missing, because he was a wisest man. It was a man of compromise, who could speak to one or another and find a compromise, and both Donbas and Ukraine would benefit from this,” he said.
A happy Donbas is “when the people have a worthy job, a worthy salary, and a worthy life,” Akhmetov said. “Donbas without Ukraine won’t be happy. And Ukraine would be weak without Donbas,” he said.
