Kiev being pressed into concessions to Moscow – Zelensky
War-weariness over the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev is growing worldwide, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted on Monday. Therefore, “people want some kind of result for themselves” and the pressure on the country to reach any kind of peaceful resolution to the hostilities is growing, he claimed.
“Of course, everyone wants to push us a little towards some kind of result, definitely unfavorable to us, because they don’t ask us yet, but it’s beneficial for certain parties that have their own interests, both financial, and political ones,” Zelensky told reporters.
He did not elaborate on exactly which parties have been putting pressure on Ukraine to reach a peace deal with Moscow. The president himself, as well as other top Ukrainian officials, have repeatedly ruled out any possibility of territorial concessions to Russia, vowing to reclaim all of the country’s territory.
Kiev’s territorial aspirations include not only the land that fell under Russian control amid the ongoing conflict, but the breakaway Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and the Crimean peninsula, which split from Ukraine and unified with Russia in 2014.
Russia attacked the neighboring state in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered protocols were designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.
The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.
