Zelenskyy on Russia’s territorial claims: Russians like to talk about compromises, but never make them
The problem with Russians is that they love to talk about compromises, but they never actually make them.
According to Censor.NET, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated this in an interview with the AP.
The language of ultimatums
Indeed, Zelenskyy emphasized that the Russians speak only the language of ultimatums.
"They want us to withdraw from the territory we control. But this demand stems from their enormous casualties. They believe that if we withdraw, they won’t lose hundreds of thousands of people. That’s true, but we cannot withdraw," the president said.
Games with Trump
According to him, Ukraine’s withdrawal from its territories, as demanded by Russia, would pose enormous risks for us. This would allow Russia to consolidate its positions in Ukraine and begin preparing for further occupation.
"They're lying and playing their own games with President Trump. I am 100 percent convinced that the Russians want to occupy us completely. That's why we need to stop them, secure a ceasefire, establish reliable security guarantees, and then take all of this to the diplomatic table," the president emphasized.
What preceded it
- As a reminder, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy previously stated that Ukraine cannot agree to cede any of its territories as part of peace negotiations with Russia, since such a move would violate national law, public sentiment, and the actual situation in the temporarily occupied territories.
- President Zelenskyy also told Reuters that the U.S. had made its offer of security guarantees contingent on Kyiv handing over the entire Donbas region to Russia.
- For his part, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio dismissed as a lie Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s claim that Washington is prepared to provide security guarantees in exchange for the withdrawal of the Ukrainian Armed Forces from Donbas.
