A ceasefire along the current line of contact and an immediate transition to negotiations is the fastest way to end the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with Danish media outlet DR Nyheder.
“We stop where we are, declare a ceasefire and move to the diplomatic path,” Zelensky said. According to him, this would bring the hot phase of the war to an end and people would stop dying. He suggested that the negotiations could continue for a month, two months, a year or even longer.
The economy and mobilization
The Ukrainian president said that such an approach would slow the pace of mobilization and allow the economy to resume its activity while diplomatic talks continued.
Zelensky acknowledged that a ceasefire would require answers to a number of questions. These include the positions of the parties, the mandate of the monitoring mission, demilitarization, the participation of European countries and the financing of Ukraine’s reconstruction.
The dispute over the order of negotiations
Zelensky said that if Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted that a comprehensive plan be agreed first and only then hostilities be halted, this would indicate an unwillingness to stop the war.
“If Putin does not want a ceasefire and says: first let us agree on a comprehensive plan, and then we will stop the war, that simply means that he does not want to stop it,” the Ukrainian president said. The claim is part of Zelensky’s position in the interview and does not represent a confirmed outcome of the negotiations.
The negotiations in Abu Dhabi
On November 10, trilateral talks between Ukraine, the United States and Russia on ending the hostilities began in Abu Dhabi. The meetings are scheduled for November 10 and 11.
Before they began, the Ukrainian delegation held separate meetings with European partners and representatives of the United States. The Ukrainian side said it did not expect a breakthrough at the first meeting but was counting on the second round of talks.
Sources: pravda.com.ua