KYIV. UkraineGate .9 . November .2022 | War News .
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy softened his position on negotiations with Russia, which is associated with a “soft push” by the administration of American leader Joe Biden. The edition writes about it Politico .
Details
On Monday, Zelenskyy outlined five conditions for negotiations: restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, respect for the UN Charter, Russia’s compensation for damages caused by the war, punishment of every war criminal and guarantees that the invasion will not happen again. Unlike previous statements, he did not indicate that Putin should resign from the post of president of the Russian Federation before such conversations could take place, the newspaper writes.
According to one of the sources, this change took place after several days of negotiations between Kyiv and Washington, in particular after a personal visit to Zelensky by US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. U.S. officials did not directly tell Zelensky and his aides in Ukraine to change their position, a senior administration official said, but said Kyiv “must show its willingness to end the war wisely and peacefully.”
Citation
“That doesn’t mean they need to sit down at the negotiating table right now. We do not even believe that now is the right time, based on what Russia is doing,” the official said. “But they must demonstrate their readiness to resolve the conflict, because no one wants this conflict to end, more than Ukraine.”
The U.S. National Security Council declined to comment on the story, but pointed to Sullivan’s remarks he made during a visit to Kyiv last week.
“The conversation we need to have with the international community in support of Ukraine is what are the conditions for a just and lasting peace for Ukraine? … This is what we intend to strive for, this is what we will support, and this is what we believe our collective efforts can help to,” the adviser said while in the Ukrainian capital.
Recall
On September 30, Zelensky announced that Ukraine would not hold talks with Russia as long as it was headed by Vladimir Putin.
Yesterday, November 8, Adviser to the Head of the President’s Office Mykhailo Podolyak responded regarding the possibility of negotiations with Russia after the de-occupation of Kherson, and noted that the liberation of the Kherson region would make it possible to insist on the complete withdrawal of Russian troops from the territory of Ukraine to resume dialogue.
