Ukrainian President threatens to abandon Donbas negotiations with Russia
Ukraine may refuse to hold negotiations with Russia on the Donbas, if there is no progress made this year, stated the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in an interview with The Guardian.
"Time is running out. The authorities can spend a year trying to reach an agreement. Then it should be implemented," said Zelensky, noting that it is impossible to wait any longer. The President of Ukraine said that after the first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he set a deadline to achieve a breakthrough. He said he could not allocate five years to work on the agreements that the Ukrainian people had "given to him."
Speaking about the meeting with Putin in December last year, he said that there were several emotional moments and he managed to convey his point of view to the Russian president. "I think he listened to me. I felt it. I hope I didn't just imagine it," the Ukrainian president said.
He believes it is important for German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, the other two leaders of the Normandy Four, to put pressure on Putin. He noted that Paris and Berlin support Kyiv, but at the same time expressed concern about Macron's efforts to restore relations with Moscow.
Zelensky also said that he has two or three other plans in case the negotiations with Russia fail, but did not explain what they are.
The summit of the "Normandy Four" (Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine) on the settlement of the situation in southeastern Ukraine was held on December 9 and 10 in Paris. This was also Putin’s forst meeting with Zelensky. The parties agreed to establish a truce in the region by the end of the year and defined three new weapons withdrawal areas by the end of March. However, he then said that some provisions of the Minsk agreements should be changed. Putin noted that the proposals of the Ukrainian president raise questions.