The citizens of Ukraine will not support a peace agreement that involves the unilateral withdrawal of troops from Donbas and the transfer of the region to Russia, said the country's President Volodymyr Zelensky in a telephone interview with the American portal "Axios" on the occasion of the negotiations in Geneva between Ukraine, Russia and the United States.
According to Zelensky, Kiev and Washington have agreed that any peace agreement will be subject to a referendum in Ukraine. In this case, the country's citizens, as Zelensky notes, will reject the agreement if it provides for the withdrawal of only Ukrainian units from Donbas without a similar move by Russia. They will also not support the transfer of the entire region to Russia, ten percent of which remains under Ukrainian control.
"People will never forgive this. Never. They will not forgive either me or the US," Zelensky said, stressing that Ukrainians "cannot understand why" they are being asked to cede additional land.
Zelensky: Ukrainians will accept a freeze on the front line
At the same time, according to the opinion of the Ukrainian president, the country's citizens will agree to such a version of the peace agreement that provides for a freeze on the current front line, including in Donbas. "I think that if the document includes that we remain where we are now on the contact line, the people will support this in the referendum."
Zelensky also said that he is ready to withdraw troops from Donbas, but only if Moscow agrees to withdraw to the same distance. According to him, during the previous negotiations, the Russian side promised, after consultations with the leadership, to present a detailed position on the territorial issue.
Zelensky has assigned "raising the issue" for a meeting with Putin
In addition, the Ukrainian president called the meeting with Russian head of state Vladimir Putin the best way to achieve a breakthrough on the territorial issue. Therefore, according to Zelensky, he assigned his negotiating team to raise the topic of a meeting between the two leaders in Geneva.
Earlier, the press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov said that a meeting between Putin and Zelensky is possible only in Moscow. In response, the Ukrainian president commented that "he cannot come for negotiations" in Moscow, but is ready to meet with Putin in any other country, except Russia and Belarus.