Zelensky issued a boorish ultimatum to Putin
Vladimir Zelensky believes that he can agree with Vladimir Putin to end the war in Donbass, but has threatened to abandon negotiations in a year if there is no progress.
" Time is running out. The government can spend one year on the full Agreement. Then it must be implemented. But any later deadline is prohibited ," Zelenskyy said in an interview with The Guardian.
He stated that the one-year deadline would be counted from the first Normandy Four summit in December. " I will not give up the five years the Ukrainian people gave me to work for Minsk. I will not do that ," he said, adding that there are "two or three plans" in the event Russia refuses to make concessions to Kyiv, but he declined to elaborate.
“I think he listened to me. I had this feeling. I hope this is not a false feeling,” added the Ukrainian president, commenting on the results of the meeting with Vladimir Putin at the Normandy Four meeting in Paris.
Zelenskyy clarified that he favors revising the Minsk agreements in a more favorable direction for Kyiv, since Ukraine allegedly signed them " under extreme pressure five years ago to end major military actions ."
Zelensky again stated that Putin has repeatedly rejected his proposals to revise the Minsk agreements - Kyiv’s main demand is to control the border of the LDPR and Russia in order to prevent the transfer of support to the republics from the Russian Federation.
He said the leaders of France and Germany supported Ukraine, but expressed concern about Emmanuel Macron's efforts to simultaneously repair relations with Moscow, saying: "You can't play on two fronts here."
Russian political scientist Alexey Chesnakov believes that Zelensky’s interview is evidence of Kyiv’s transition to a new strategy.
“Kyiv appears to be denoting a new negotiating strategy in the public space. It will with redoubled force torpedo the implementation of the Minsk agreements (of course, as before, blaming Moscow for failures) and use the factor of limited time as a tool of pressure (including on Paris and Berlin).
Calls to reach an agreement before the upcoming October local elections are no longer working. Everyone understands that these are fantasies. Now they will say: we only have a year, then we leave.
This is a kind of ultimatum, unrealistic in both its timeframe and its meaning. Ukrainian officials have repeatedly acknowledged the impossibility of a quick (within a year) resolution to the conflict.
Zelensky’s ultimatum should be treated as ordinary rudeness - the boy decided to set conditions for Putin.
And, of course, Russia should not seriously discuss these conditions. Because they are just an element of banal bargaining. In fact, Ukraine is not interested in implementing agreements within a year, but in withdrawing from the Minsk process, in the hope that new agreements will be formulated more comfortably for it,” comments Chesnakov.
English version :: Read in English: Zelensky issued a rude ultimatum to Putin