“We will get everything back for ourselves” Zelenskyy: They broke the backbone of the Russian army
May 21, 2022, 1:46 pm
Heavy fighting continues to ravage Ukraine. But its president Zelenskyy is convinced that his country has “broken the backbone” of the attacking Russian army. However, he is also convinced that the war can only be ended through diplomacy.
Despite the defeat in the port city of Mariupol, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes that the Ukrainian army has inflicted serious damage on the Russian military. Ukraine “has broken the backbone of the Russian army,” Zelensky said in a television interview. “They won’t be able to get back on their feet in the next few years,” said the 44-year-old.
Shortly before, the last more than 2,400 Ukrainian defenders of the port city in the south-east of the country surrendered and were taken prisoner by the Russians. Zelenskyy stressed that Kiev will have everything back. A return to the front lines before February 24 – the day Russia’s war of aggression began – will already count as a victory. “It will mean that they didn’t conquer us and we defend our country,” said the head of state.
But getting there will be very difficult. In the end, there is diplomacy. The war will be “bloody, there will be fierce fighting, but it will only end definitively through diplomacy,” the head of state told Ukrainian broadcaster ICTV. “There are things we can only achieve at the negotiating table.” The results of the negotiations must be “fair” for Ukraine. According to Zelensky, there should be a document on security guarantees for Ukraine, signed “by Ukraine’s friends and partners, without Russia”. At the same time, there must be “a bilateral discussion with Russia”.
Negotiations are suspended
Since the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine in late February, Ukrainian and Russian negotiators initially met regularly for negotiations or discussed a solution to the conflict via videoconference. According to Russian news agencies, the last meeting of the two countries’ top negotiators took place on April 22 – a month ago.
Russia blames Ukraine for the impasse. “Negotiations are really not progressing and we note that Ukrainian negotiators are unwilling to continue this process,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in Moscow on Wednesday. Earlier, Ukraine said the talks had been suspended because of Russia’s stance. Moscow does not understand “what is currently happening in the world and its extremely negative role,” said Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolak.
According to its foreign minister, Italy has developed a plan for a peaceful solution to the Ukraine war. “We now need a diplomatic counter-offensive,” Luigi Di Maio told La Stampa newspaper. He criticized that only individual states were currently trying to mediate. Now they want all relevant international organizations to cooperate. A first objective is to achieve local breaks in combat. This must be followed by an armistice, neutrality work and, finally, a peace agreement.
Di Maio is pessimistic
The plan was developed by diplomats and the Italian government and presented to negotiators from the seven most important industrialized nations (G7), Di Maio said. He also spoke with UN Secretary-General António Guterres. The UN, EU and OSCE should involve other countries like Turkey and India as the main working group.
However, Di Maio was pessimistic about the current state of negotiations with Russia: “I don’t want to look like an underdog, but I don’t see negotiations at any table,” he said. “Individual actions will not convince Vladimir Putin to negotiate.”