Kiev won’t concede lands for peace, the president insists
FILE PHOTO: Former US President Donald at a campaign rally. © Scott Olson / Getty Images
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has rejected a plan for making peace with Russia involving territorial concessions, which has reportedly been devised by Donald Trump.
The proposed deal was outlined by the Washington Post this week, and would involve Kiev acknowledging Russian sovereignty over some of the territories currently claimed by Ukraine.
The newspaper cited anonymous sources but one of Trump’s advisers has dismissed its report as “fake news.”
The former president has repeatedly boasted that he would end the hostilities within 24 hours if he’s returned to the White House in November’s election, but has declined to explain his plan in detail.
The hypothetical plan described by the newspaper “is very primitive,” Zelensky told German tabloid Bild.
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The Ukrainian leader has previously stated that Trump should make his plan public. He told CNN last September: “If he has this plan, why be afraid and wait?”
In his interview with Bild, the Ukrainian leader said Trump should visit Kiev to “see the situation with his eyes and draw certain conclusions.” Ukraine would require “strong arguments” to show that his idea is a “real one” and not “fantastic,” he added.
Negotiations with Russia remain impossible as long as Vladimir Putin remains as its president, Zelensky told the German newspaper.
He said Kiev had a plan to beat Moscow on the battlefield, after it gets more aid from the US and its allies, including direct weapons supplies and military technology for domestic arms production. He expects Western weapons to be so superior to Russian ones that Ukraine’s inferior troop numbers will be irrelevant.
