President Voldyrmyr Zelensky on Sunday evening, March 27, said Ukraine is ready to negotiate an end to its war with Russia, but any agreement making Kyiv surrender land of accept anything but iron-clad security guarantees, are absolute deal-breakers.
Zelensky made the remarks during a 90-minute interview with five Russian Federation (RF) independent news platforms: The YouTube Channel Zygar, Dozhd TV, the Meduza news portal, Kommersant magazine, and Novaya Gazeta newspaper.
The Ukrainian leader said: “Ahead of us (this week) we have a new round of talks, and we are searching for peace. Our priorities are well-known. The sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine are not up for discussion. Effective security guarantees for our country are mandatory. Our clear hope is peace and the return of normal life to Ukraine.”
Russian Federation (RF) negotiators in recent weeks have backed off from some of the most extreme ultimatums laid out by Russian President Vladimir Putin, prior to his order to the Russian army to invade Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Originally, among other conditions, Moscow demanded the removal of Zelensky and his government from power, Ukraine’s unilateral acceptance of RF invasions and annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014, total Ukrainian demilitarization, Ukrainian rejection of NATO, and permanent Ukrainian status as a neutral nation.
More recently, Kremlin negotiators led by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have claimed they never intended to eliminate the Ukrainian state and that they have always accepted Ukrainian sovereignty.
Zelensky during the interview repeated past statements that Ukraine no longer considers NATO a reliable partner due to NATO’s gross inaction and lip service to humanitarian values, as the RF has bombarded hundreds of Ukrainian cities, towns and villages, killing thousands and triggering humanitarian crises in the cities Mariupol, Kharkiv and Chernihiv.
Kyiv is willing to accept neutrality, but only on condition Ukraine’s protection from another RF invasion is absolute, Zelensky said.
Two continuing RF demands – that Ukraine “denazify” its society and that Ukraine destroy its military and eliminate all means of defending itself – are not up for discussion, Zelensky said. Any talks with these two issues even on the agenda, will not be attended by Ukrainian negotiators, he said.
Zelensky said Ukraine is prepared to sign an agreement rejecting nuclear weapons.
A native Russian speaker himself, Zelensky said that another RF demand, that the Russian language become a state language in Ukraine along with Ukrainian, is irrelevant because Russian speakers in Ukraine face neither barriers nor discrimination. This view, widely held across Ukrainian society, by both Russian- and Ukrainian-speakers, is contradicted by RF state propaganda.
Zelensky said that Ukraine is nonetheless willing to discuss “mirrored” protection guarantees for the Russian language in Ukraine – as long as the Kremlin agrees to “protect” languages besides Russian in Russia.
The Russian language is overwhelmingly dominant in Russian society and openly supported by the state. The Kremlin has long argued that Russian speakers in any country merit protection and support from Russia.
