Zelenskyy: it is impossible to understand what Russia is ready for without meeting Putin

Kateryna Tyshchenko - Monday, 21 March 2022, 22:32

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasises that without his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, it is impossible to know what Russia is ready for.

Source: Zelenskyy in an interview with Suspilne

Verbatim: "I believe that without this meeting in any format, one can’t really fully understand what they are ready to do to stop the war and what they are ready for if we are not ready for compromises."

Details: The President stressed that it is necessary to understand whether Russia even wants to stop the war in the first place.

"First of all, we need to find a framework that will enable us to understand whether Russia wants to stop the war in general. It is possible that we won’t cover anything else [any other negotiations matters - ed.]. [We need to know] whether Russia wants this conceptually and whether it is capable of achieving it," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

The president stressed that "we want peace, because no matter how difficult it is, it is better than war," but there should be a dialogue, not ultimatums.

Verbatim: "First, if people want to end the war, they agree on a ceasefire, and they withdraw troops. The presidents meet, agree that troops should be withdrawn, that there are certain security guarantees. These are the issues that the compromise can be reached about."

We must take the first step - security guarantees and an end to the war - in order to find a solution for Crimea and Donbass, according to him.

"I am ready to raise these issues (concerning Crimea and Donbass - ed.) at the first meeting with the President of Russia. They are relevant, they are also very important for us - I mean the occupied territories. However, I am sure that this decision will not be reached in this meeting. To be completely honest, we will talk about constitutional changes and changes in Ukrainian legislation when discussing security matters. And even if we talk about it, these matters will be decided not only by the President, but also by the Rada (Verkhovna Rada, Ukrainian Parliament -ed.), and the people of Ukraine," Zelenskyy said.

The president also said he and Putin had different views on the war.

"We have different attitudes to everything - me and the president, who started a war against us. For example, I talked to the commander in chief at 07:00 and we discussed where and whom we lost: how many people, children, military personnel; how many of them are under the rubble - how many do we know for sure, and how many we don't know about yet. I want to put myself in the place of those people who are suffering now in order to make conclusions about certain compromises. [When I know] they are in Mariupol or in the basement shelter. That’s why I want to know all this. This is the only way I can be adequate in making certain decisions," he said.