Volodymyr Zelensky, in the next phase of talks to end the war in Ukraine, intends to draw a red line at the most contentious issue on the table: the Russian demand for Ukraine’s sovereign territory. As long as he remains the nation’s president, Zelensky will not agree to give up land in exchange for peace, Ukraine’s chief negotiator, Andriy Yermak, told me today in an exclusive interview.
“Not a single sane person today would sign a document to give up territory,” said Yermak, who has served as Zelensky’s chief of staff, lead negotiator, and closest aide throughout the full-scale war with Russia.
“As long as Zelensky is president, no one should count on us giving up territory. He will not sign away territory,” he told me by telephone from Kyiv. “The constitution prohibits this. Nobody can do that unless they want to go against the Ukrainian constitution and the Ukrainian people.”
What i don’t get is: has anybody bothered asking the people who have lived in the affected territories (Donbass) what they want?
Maybe that’d have been a valid point back in say 2005 or something but the Russians have pretty thoroughly muddies the waters for such a vote to be possible at this point. While I don’t know about the Donbass in particular nearly as wellas I probably should if it’s anything like Crimea there’s a solid chance that quite a solid chunk of the original locals want to turn Moscow into a smoking crater.
Russia likes to move colonists in as fast as possible and frankly speaking they can drown on their own blood.
And how would they go about doing that? It’s not like Russia wouldn’t allow there to be a free vote.
What if they invited UN observers?
Like they did in Crimea?
And it doesn’t matter. With the mass killings and population transfers it CAN’T be a fair vote now. It’s a moot point. The only time a vote could have been fair or representative was BEFORE the Russian invasion and ethnic cleansing.
Some people wanted to join Russia, the majority didn’t, and it varies year per year per whatever issue is making the rounds. Funny thing about independent movements though, they don’t really care about the percentage of people and sub-regions who didn’t want to leave or what they thought.
Well good for them. Bending knee to Putin won’t secure peace, it’ll only secure them an intermission until Putin can finish the job.
Why does it matter what they want? What next, are you gonna ask the people being sent to die? The only people who really matter are billionaires like Putin and Zelenskyy and what chickenhawks on
redditlemmy want.