Ukrainian President: dialogue with Putin is needed to end the war in Donbas
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky believes that without open dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin it will never be possible to stop the war in the Donbas and take back all Ukrainian territories.
"I am sure that we will never stop the war if we do not talk to Russia. A separate case is the support of our Western partners. But if we don't talk to President Putin, we will not be able to fully restore Ukraine and take back all our territories," Zelensky said in an interview with Politico Europe.
Zelensky recalled that 140 detainees had been released from captivity in Russia and the Donbas during his presidency.
Also, the Ukrainian President believes that communication with the Russian president exclusively within the framework of the Normandy format is not enough. "We have issues that were not addressed in the Normandy format. These are the issue of the return of our sailors, humanitarian difficulties of the Crimeans who are in captivity, many of them are behind bars. Such issues need to be resolved with the Russian president," he said.
The President is convinced that certain media "do everything to disrupt any possibility of dialogue," even within the framework of the Normandy format or the Minsk process.
"This applies to those media outlets that belong to either large financial structures or politicians who were in power before me and held high positions. They all have media channels. They belong to them, unfortunately. Although we never give up and believe that in any case, in the issue of ending the war, we will move forward and talk with both partners and Russia in order to take back people and territories," Zelensky said.