President Zelensky: Allowing conflict to be ‘frozen’ would simply embolden Putin

The relevant statement was made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in an interview with The Economist, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

According to Zelensky, the Ukrainian people will not agree to compromise on territory.

“And that is why it is very important…to go to our borders from 1991,” Zelensky said.

In his words, that includes not just the territory grabbed by Russia this year, but also Crimea, which it seized and annexed in 2014, and the occupied areas of eastern Ukraine.

Zelensky emphasized that Putin’s only solution is a complete Russian retreat, both from land seized this year and from territory occupied since 2014.

“The only difference I talk about is the one between us driving them out or them withdrawing,” the President of Ukraine added.

According to Zelensky, if Putin now withdraws to the 1991 borders, then the possible path of diplomats will begin.

Additionally, Zelensky mentioned that long-term Russian occupation is already poisoning Ukrainian minds. Ukrainians in the occupied territories, he says, are like astronauts who cannot take off heavy helmets, limiting what they can see to unrelenting disinformation.

Photo: Office of the President of Ukraine

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