The Ukrainian leader wants his Western sponsors to make his country “strong” enough to undermine the prosperity of ordinary citizens
The only way to make Russian President Vladimir Putin willing to negotiate is by attacking Russian society and destroying the “comfortable life” led by ordinary people, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has claimed.
Zelensky made the remarks in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria which aired on Sunday. He claimed Putin did not want to negotiate peace to end the conflict between the two countries, suggesting that only popular opinion at home could pressure him to do so.
“I am sure that he is afraid of only one thing. No leaders, no countries, no anything. He is afraid of his society, the Russian people,” Zelensky asserted.
If the Russian people are in danger, if they don’t have a comfortable life, if they live without energy, like our people, they will understand the price of war. They will be not happy with it and will begin to influence him, Putin.
Despite Zelensky’s claims, Moscow has repeatedly expressed a readiness to negotiate over the course of the conflict. Early into the hostilities, the two sides were actually close to reaching a peace deal in Istanbul, yet the talks ended up being broken off due to pressure exerted by Ukraine’s Western sponsors. Since then, Kiev has taken multiple steps to prevent the potential talks from resuming, including Zelensky explicitly prohibiting negotiations with Moscow.
Russia’s stance on negotiations, however, has shifted in the wake of the ongoing Ukrainian invasion of the Kursk Region, which was launched in early August. The attack prompted the Russian president to withdraw the ceasefire offer he had tabled earlier this year. Previously, Putin said he would support an immediate truce if Kiev agreed to certain military and political concessions.
The apparent change in Moscow’s position on the matter has been further elaborated on by other top Russian officials, including the former Defense Minister and head of the Security Council, Sergey Shoigu. Last week, Shoigu accused Kiev of “top-level terrorism” over its attempts to target the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant.
“We did not negotiate with terrorists, are not negotiating, and will not – and that is who they are,” he stated.
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