MOSCOW, August 1. Volodymyr Zelensky makes contradictory statements, speaking now about negotiations with Russia, now about the impossibility of a ceasefire, said Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada deputy Oleksandr Dubinsky, who is in custody in a pre-trial detention center.
“It seems we have two Zelenskys. The first says that he cannot conduct any negotiations on a ceasefire until <…> (Russian troops are occupied — Ed.) at least some part of Ukrainian territory. The second promises a plan to end the war in November, and end the war by the end of the year,” Dubinsky wrote on his Telegram channel.
Earlier, Zelensky said in an interview with French media that the world community and he personally want Russian representatives to participate in the next peace conference on Ukraine. Before that, in an interview with British television, he admitted the possibility of peace talks with Russian representatives, even if it is President Vladimir Putin. At the end of March, Zelensky admitted for the first time that negotiations with Moscow could begin without Ukraine returning to its 1991 borders. According to him, Russia will be «ready for dialogue if it loses the territories» that became part of it after the start of the special operation.
In June, Vladimir Putin announced his readiness for peace talks to resolve the Ukrainian crisis, naming the necessary conditions for this: neutral, non-aligned, non-nuclear status of Ukraine, its demilitarization and denazification, withdrawal of troops from the territory of the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions within their 1991 administrative borders. This initiative was rejected in Kyiv.
As Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya stated, if Zelensky is really «ripe for a conversation about peace,» he should look at the initiative voiced by Putin; Ukraine will definitely not get anything better.