“At this particular moment, these peace talks are far from real negotiations,” Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, the chair of Ukraine’s parliamentary committee on Ukraine’s integration into the European Union, told a small group of reporters at a event hosted by the German Marshall Fund Round table think tank.
“Definitely I think Putin is using this as an excuse to buy time to regroup… and send false, mendacious messages to the whole world,” she said.
“We believe that these are not real peace talks at this time,” said MP Anastasia Radina, who heads the parliament’s anti-corruption policy committee. “We have the feeling that Russia is trying to save face. They say they are withdrawing troops from the Kyiv region. That’s not true for one simple reason. You don’t retreat. … They were kicked out.”
Radina said there was only “one way out of the war, and that is for Ukraine to win.”
Her comments came a day after Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had decided to “drastically reduce” hostilities around Kyiv and Chernihiv. US officials, including President Joe Biden, remain skeptical of the announcement.
“We’ll see,” Biden said Tuesday when asked about Russia’s claims. “I don’t read anything into it until I see what they’re doing. We will see if they follow their suggestions.”
More weapons needed
Ukraine’s all-female delegation — men between the ages of 18 and 60 are not allowed to leave Ukraine in the midst of war — traveled primarily to Washington this week, they say, to appeal to American lawmakers and administrators for more military support, which They said that it still falls far short of Ukraine’s needs.
“Right action for Ukraine right now, for supporting Ukraine right now would be weapons,” Radina said. “Ukraine constantly demands weapons, and not only defensive weapons, but also offensive weapons. In our situation, this distinction between defensive and offensive is frankly humiliating. In our situation, all weapons are defensive because we are defending our country. “
Radina reiterated that Ukraine needs fighter jets, “because that’s how we can actually stop the bombings. … And as of now, the issue is on the table, and as long as it’s on the table, people will continue to suffer.”
“Our ‘humanitarian aid’ is weapons,” MP Maria Ionova said. “To minimize these casualties and casualties, we must defend our air. Freedom must be armed. And so our main message here is, please, help us defend our future and the future of the democratic world.”
“Neutrality is not an option for Ukraine”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signaled that Ukraine could be ready to renounce NATO membership and commit to neutrality if the West gives Ukraine solid security guarantees. But such a move would have to be put to a referendum – and Klympush-Tsintsadze indicated that anything but NATO membership should be rejected.
“Neutrality is not an option for Ukraine,” she said. “I want everyone to understand that we were non-aligned. We were a non-bloc country in 2014. That didn’t stop Putin from attacking us at this point. And it didn’t stop him from conquering part of our territory. So it won’t stop him. Even if we write on all papers, everywhere, that we are neutral. He just has no interest in us existing as such.
Radina echoed those comments, saying that “absolute neutrality is not an option for Ukraine” because Russia will always border the country and aim to “erase” Ukraine from the map.
“So yes, we are looking for workable security guarantees and not just another Budapest memorandum,” she said.
The UK, US and Russia signed this memorandum – which would ban those countries from using military force against Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan – in exchange for giving up their nuclear weapons.
Zelenskyy said at the Munich Security Conference last month that Ukraine had “tried three times” since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea, “to convene consultations with the guarantor states of the Budapest Memorandum. Three times without success.”