President Vladimir Zelenskyy spoke about the first round of negotiations with the aggressor country of the Russian Federation.
In his video address, he said that the Russian side initiated the negotiations and carried them out against the background of bombing and shelling of Ukraine.
"The synchronization of the shelling with the negotiation process was evident. I believe that Russia is trying to put pressure in such a simple way. Don't waste time. We do not accept such tactics. Fair negotiations can be when one side does not hit the other side with rocket artillery while having negotiations," Zelensky stressed.
The President stressed that the meeting has not yet yielded the results we would like to see.
"Russia has stated its position. We made counter-points - to end the war. We received some signals. When the delegation returns to Kyiv, we will analyze what we heard, and then we will decide how to move to the second round of negotiations," Zelenskyy said.
"Another thing that is very important to say. We have been waiting for this for 30 years. Today I signed the application for Ukraine's membership in the European Union. We have won our right to be with everyone in Europe. The application has already been delivered to Brussels, officially registered", added the President.
Yesterday Lukashenko and Zelensky agreed on negotiations between the delegations of Ukraine and Russia at the border. On the morning of February 27, the Russian media wrote that the negotiators from Russia had arrived in Belarus for negotiations with Ukraine and were ready to do so in Gomel. Zelenskyy replied that we were prepared for talks in any country whose territory missiles are not launched in Ukraine.
Before the negotiations, a member of the delegation, David Arahamiya, said they would go either in the right direction or as a Russian warship.
The negotiations ended, identifying "many priority topics and outlining certain directions." Delegations from Russia and Ukraine are currently returning to the capital for consultations.