President Volodymyr Zelensky calls on Russia to withdraw troops to the positions where they were until February 24 in order to begin a dialogue on the issue of Donbass.
He stated this in an interview with Russian media.
Asked how he envisions a military victory, Zelensky replied:
"To reduce the number of casualties as much as possible, to shorten the terms of this war. Withdraw Russian Federation troops to compromise territories - which is all that was there before February 24, before the attack. Let them go back there.
I understand that it is impossible to force Russia to completely vacate the territory, it would lead to World War III. I understand this very well, and I am well aware of that. That is why I say: this is a compromise. Go back to where it all began, and there we will try to solve the issue of Donbas, the complicated issue of Donbas."
Zelensky said that representatives of countries that can give Ukraine security guarantees in the case of neutral status, "will not sign anything if we have troops."
"No guarantor... Johnson, Biden, Duda, Erdogan? Who is going to sit down to talk about anything if we have troops standing there? Who's going to sign something? Nothing will happen, it's impossible. That's why we shouldn't wait for the law to change. So when the Russian side said: "Let's change the law first, and then we'll take the tanks out," we look at them as... not deeply understanding political processes in terms of the law," the president said.
"A referendum is impossible when there are troops present. No one will ever, in terms of convention, count the results of this referendum if there are troops or armed illegal formations or legitimate formations of another state without any legal foundation. This is impossible," he stressed.
Zelensky said that his personal agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin was enough to begin the process of withdrawing Russian troops from Ukraine.
"Here we met, we agreed with him (Putin), this is enough - our agreement with him with signatures, with seals, even with blood. This is enough to start the process of troop withdrawal. The troops should be withdrawn, the guarantors should sign everything. Next, ratification in parliaments, a referendum for a few months, and then changes in the Constitution," Zelensky added.
The full version of the interview is at the link:
