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.”
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.