In an interview published online by the “Bild” newspaper on Wednesday, he also called for direct negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “My goal in every negotiation is to end the war with Russia. And I’m ready to take certain steps,” said Zelenskyy.
“You can make compromises, but they must not be a betrayal of my country. And the other side must also be willing to compromise,” he continued. Only then would you get ahead. “We can’t talk about the details yet. We haven’t had direct contact between the presidents. We can only end this war after direct talks between the two presidents.”
Zelenskyy avoided a concrete answer to the question of whether he was ready to cede Crimea to Russia and to recognize the sovereignty of the separatist republics in eastern Ukraine: “The question here is not what I can give.”
On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Ukrainian colleague Dmytro Kuleba want to talk in Antalya, mediated by Turkey, about ways to end the fighting. An adviser to Zelenskyi had suggested that Ukraine could forego NATO membership in exchange for security guarantees. This is one of the central demands of the government in Moscow.
A spokeswoman for Russia’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that the government wants to achieve its goals of Ukraine’s neutral status through talks and hopes the round of talks will make progress. The meeting in Antalya is the first government-level meeting since the Russian invasion began on February 24.
Source: Nachrichten
