Peace in Donbas remains a top priority for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, he will be satisfied when there is no information about the killed and wounded Ukrainian servicemen in the reports of the Joint Force Operation (JFO) Headquarters, presidential press secretary Serhiy Nikiforov said.
“The president will be satisfied when in the reports [of the JFO Headquarters about shelling and losses] there are zero dead, zero wounded. The president, for his part, is doing everything possible. He has repeated that he is ready to meet in the Normandy format and tete-a-tete with the Russian president to stop shelling in eastern Ukraine once and for all. Unfortunately, the Kremlin’s goals are slightly different,” Nikiforov said during a briefing on July 27.
“Peace remains the president’s top priority,” he said.
Nikiforov said that since July 27, 2020, when the agreement on the introduction of a full and comprehensive ceasefire in Donbas came into force, the number of shelling and deaths among the Ukrainian servicemen has halved in eastern Ukraine, and the number of wounded has decreased more than three times.
“Today is the anniversary of the introduction of the ceasefire. Many criticize this ceasefire, they call it fake, but it is worth looking at the numbers. In the year before July 27, 2020 there were more than 4,000 attacks, 88 dead and 500 wounded. Over the past year, from July 27, 2020 to this day, 2,000 attacks, 45 killed, 150 wounded,” he said.
