Ukraine cannot agree to conditional Minsk-3, because it will mean a postponed war. Nor can we talk about a ceasefire before the withdrawal of russian troops from Ukraine.
This was announced in an interview with LB by Mikhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the President's Office and a member of the negotiating team with the russian delegation.
“It is clear that they will dig in, create their own fortification lines and it will be very difficult for us to get them out of Ukraine. We cannot agree to any ultimatum from russia, because it will mean that they are winning. And any, even small victory for russia is an escalation. Russia is an expansionist state that, in principle, offers the world one idea: we will go into any territory and take it away or destroy it,” he explained.
Podolyak added, that the head of the negotiating team from russia, Vladimir Medinskiy, had recently stated that russia “will liberate Ukraine for the sake of our children.”
“For the sake of russian children, as I understand it. That is, in fact, he said, “We will kill Ukrainian children for the sake of russian children.” What does the russian Federation look like? This is one of the most unpleasant countries to live in. There is no service, no comfort, no prospects. This is a civilizational concept of the russian Federation. Unfortunately, Europe does not fully understand it. Europe thinks it is a matter of exporting grain from Ukraine or destroying additional Ukrainian tanks. It is not true, it is a completely different type of war,” he stressed.
Some Europeans are in fact proposing that Ukraine should surrender so as not to resist or “increase the number of casualties and destruction.” At the same time, Podolyak stressed that calls for Ukraine to accept the loss of certain territories are heard only from some political groups in Europe.
It will be recalled that the other day russian President Vladimir Putin said in a telephone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that russia was ready to “resume dialogue” with Ukraine.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba noted on 27 May that russia does not want a negotiation process with Ukraine, as it continues the aggressive war and is gradually annexing Kherson and Zaporizhzhia region.