Presidential advisor called Westerners urging concessions in the name of peace ‘dumb f**ks’
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky appears on a giant screen during his address by video conference as part of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on May 23, 2022. © AFP / Fabrice COFFRINI
Ukrainian presidential advisor Alexey Arestovich resorted to obscene language to criticize those in the West urging Kiev to cede part of the country’s territory to Russia for the sake of peace.
“Go f**k yourselves with such proposals, you dumb f**ks, to trade Ukrainian territory a little bit! Are you f**king crazy? Our children are dying, soldiers are stopping shells with their own bodies, and they are telling us how to sacrifice our territories. This will never happen,” Arestovich said in an interview on Wednesday.
Arestovich criticized the logic of “bleating” voices encouraging Ukraine “to curb its appetite” and to give Russia the territories it supposedly wants, as such concessions would allow Kiev to “establish a comprehensive peace and to return to business as usual.”
Another adviser of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mikhail Podoliak, took to Telegram on Wednesday to address “pro-Russian lobbyists in Europe.”
“We do not sell our citizens, territories or sovereignty. This is a clear red line. Ukrainian society has paid a terrible price and will not allow anyone to even take a step in this direction – no government and no country,” Podoliak said, adding that anyone who calls for such compromises will get “a principled response” from Kiev.
While no one wants a long military action or a food crisis, “the shortest way to end the war is with weapons, sanctions and financial assistance to Ukraine,” Podoliak argued.
“The Ukrainians defended Kiev, liberated three regions and are completing the liberation of the fourth. Today, the same people offer us to give Russia the east and the south. Thanks for the advice, but we’ll probably take up arms,” the adviser claimed.
Statements from Arestovich and Podoliak come after former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Monday. Kissinger urged Ukraine to make peace quickly and seek a return to the way things were before February.
Ukraine has previously insisted that it would not agree to any peace proposal that does not respect its pre-2014 borders.
Moscow made clear that independence of Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as the status of Crimea as a Russian region, are not up for discussion.
Russia attacked the neighboring state in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered protocols were designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.
The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.
