Before a possible presidential meeting
Kyiv: “Freeing Russia from Imperial Illusions”
4/10/2022 4:26 am
The negotiators from Kyiv and Moscow are discussing the conditions for a peace agreement, but apparently nobody is hoping for results soon. Ukraine initially wants to build up more pressure. On the one hand with an international oil embargo. On the other hand, with military successes in the Donbass – even if these come at a high price.
Ukraine does not expect President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to meet in person with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to the war. “To say that they will meet in a week, in two weeks – no, that will not happen,” said presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak on Ukrainian television on Saturday.
Kyiv is initially preparing for fighting in the Donbass. After that, Ukraine will have “a stronger negotiating position” for a possible presidential meeting, he said. Ukraine continues to insist on strong security guarantees and pays a very high price for it, Podoljak said. “Yes, it’s tough, we’re losing people and infrastructure every day. But Russia needs to free itself from its imperial illusions.” How long this will take is irrelevant. “The President of Ukraine will enter into negotiations when we have absolutely clear positions.”
Ukraine’s chief negotiator in negotiations with Russia, David Arakhamiya, said there was no tangible progress. For Kyiv, territorial unity remains a red line. “We will not give up any areas and we will not recognize anything,” said Arakhamiya, referring to the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea annexed by Russia in 2014 and the eastern Ukrainian “people’s republics” of Luhansk and Donetsk. Putin recognized both as independent states and then launched a war of aggression against Ukraine.
Zelenskyj calls for an oil embargo
Meanwhile, President Zelenskyy is pushing for an international ban on imports of oil from Russia to increase the pressure. “If tyranny has launched an aggression against everything on which peace in Europe rests, we must act immediately,” he said in a video message released Saturday night. An oil embargo must be the first step for the “entire civilized world”. “Then Russia will feel it. Then it will be an argument for them to seek peace and end the senseless violence,” said Zelenskyy. The democratic world could definitely do without Russian oil.
The aim of the “anti-war coalition” is clear – to end the war more quickly, said the president. Therefore, it is not only a moral obligation of the European states to support Ukraine’s desire for peace. Russian aggression will not be limited to his country. “The whole European project is a target for Russia.”