I don’t want to see initiatives to resolve war that do not coincide with Ukraine’s interests - Zelenskyy
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that he would not want to see any initiatives for a peaceful settlement of the war in different countries of the world after this year’s elections that would not coincide with Ukraine’s interests.
"We do not want any formats of negotiations, any formulas for peace to be imposed on us by countries or even our partners who are not here today and are not at war. I do not wish them war, but it is very important that the initiative can only come from Ukraine," Zelenskyy said at a press conference on Sunday, Censor.NET reports.
The head of state also stressed that Ukraine should not miss such a diplomatic initiative as the first inaugural Peace Summit, which will be held in Switzerland by the summer.
As for the second Peace Summit, Zelenskyy noted, "We would like it to be held, perhaps not on the European continent, but on another one."
According to him, the first summit will develop a plan and prepare a document, as was the case with the grain initiative, when Ukraine, Turkey, and the UN agreed on specific steps.
"And then our plan was handed over to the Russian side. And we showed that let's work in this format. If it doesn't work, we will still go ahead with the implementation of the corridor on our own. And so it happened... After that, Russia confirmed that they could not be trusted, but there was nothing they could do about it. The grain was gone. This is positive, and it was an important result during the war," Zelenskyy said.
"It's the same with the summit. When the countries prepare the relevant document, the document will be fair. This does not mean that Russia will accept this document... We are saying that this document will be presented by the negotiators, just like in the format of the grain initiative, and then presented to the Russian side," the President added.
Zelenskyy also stressed that "we will be ready for the second Peace Summit, for appropriate diplomatic steps towards a just peace and ending the war, and we want as many countries of the world as possible to be with us."
"But I really don't want an initiative from a non-democratic country or from very democratic countries to appear after the elections in different countries of the world (and this is a year of different elections) that would not coincide with the interests of the country that is at war today," he concluded.
