“There will be fierce fighting”
According to Selenskyj, the end of the war only through diplomacy
May 21, 2022, 1:46 p.m
It will be “bloody” and there will be “heavy fighting,” says Ukrainian President Zelenskyy about the war in his country. But in the end there will only be a solution at the negotiating table. But he also calls for security guarantees from partner countries.
According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the war in Ukraine can ultimately only be ended through diplomacy. The war will be “bloody, there will be fierce fighting, but it will only end with diplomacy,” the head of state told the Ukrainian broadcaster ICTV. “There are things that we can only achieve at the negotiating table.” The results of the negotiations must be “just” for Ukraine.
According to Zelensky, there should be a document on security guarantees for Ukraine, signed “by the friends and partners of Ukraine, without Russia.” At the same time there should be “a bilateral discussion with Russia”.
Since the beginning of the Russian military operation in Ukraine at the end of February, Ukrainian and Russian negotiators had initially met regularly for negotiations or discussed a settlement of the conflict via video conference. According to Russian news agencies, the last meeting of the two countries’ chief negotiators took place on April 22 – a month ago.
Russia blames Ukraine for the deadlock. “The talks are indeed not progressing and we note that the Ukrainian negotiators completely lack the will to continue this process,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in Moscow on Wednesday. Earlier, Ukraine said the talks had been suspended because of Russia’s stance. Moscow lacks understanding of “what is currently happening in the world and its extremely negative role,” said Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak.
Italy presents peace plan
Meanwhile, according to its foreign minister, Italy has developed a plan for a peace solution in the Ukraine war. “We now need a diplomatic counter-offensive,” Luigi Di Maio told the newspaper “La Stampa”. He criticized that only individual states were currently trying to mediate. Now they want to get all relevant international organizations to cooperate. A first goal is to achieve local breaks in the fighting. This should be followed by an armistice, work on neutrality and ultimately a peace agreement.
The plan was developed by diplomats and the Italian government and presented to the negotiators of the seven most important industrialized nations (G7), said Di Maio. He also spoke to UN Secretary-General António Guterres. The UN, EU and OSCE should involve other countries like Turkey and India as the main working group.
However, Di Maio was pessimistic about the current situation in negotiations with Russia: “I don’t want to seem like a doomsayer, but I don’t see any negotiations at any table,” he said. “Individual actions will not persuade Vladimir Putin to negotiate.”