2 years ago
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine said Sunday that he is ready to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin but not willing to yield on his nation's territorial integrity.
Speaking through an interpreter on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS," he said, "I am ready for negotiations with him. I was ready over the last two years, and I think that without negotiations, we cannot end this war."
He added: "If there is just 1 percent chance for us to stop this war, I think that we need to take this chance, we need to do that."
While open to talks to end this brutal war, Zelenskyy did say that his nation is only willing to make limited compromises in any negotiations with Russia and not willing to hand over the territory his citizens are fighting so hard to retain. He said his nation would need "security guarantees, sovereignty, restoration of territorial integrity, real guarantees for our country" in order to agree to stop the fighting.
"There are compromises for which we cannot be ready as an independent state," he said. "Any compromises related to our territorial integrity and our sovereignty and the Ukrainian people have spoken about it — they have not greeted Russian soldiers with a bunch of flowers, they have greeted them with bravery, they have greeted them with weapons in their hands."
In the extended interview with Zakaria, Zelenskyy also said that he has been saying for years that Ukraine deserved to be fully integrated into Europe, both as a a member of NATO and the European Union.
He said even the promise of those things would have helped block Russian expansionist policies and help to put an end to the fighting that began in 2014.
"If Russia continues to make soundings, testing the crowd and if they do not see any kind of response from the West, they will continue to advance," he said. "I have been talking about this from the very first day of my presidency."
Zelenskyy said he has been telling the world's leaders this through his time in office: 'I told them that we are running out of time. You have to admit Ukraine into NATO right now. We did not have much time. You have to accept Ukraine as a member of EU. We deserve these alliances."
But, he noted: "Everyone in the West told me that we do not have any chance of NATO or EU membership."
Zelenskyy, who is Jewish and who lost members of his family in the Holocaust during World War II, said he found it absurd that Putin has said Ukraine is full of Nazis.
"This is a laughable statement for me," he said, but added that it was very worrisome nonetheless: "The fact is that if he is serious about this statement, he might be capable of very horrendous steps because that would mean that this is not a game for him."
Throughout the interview, Zelenskyy spoke of the pride and resilience of Ukraine's people.
"Russian forces have come to exterminate us, to kill us, and we have demonstrated the dignity of our people and our army," he said.
"But," he added, "our dignity is not going to preserve the lives."
Zakaria asked Zelenskyy how he and his family were holding up.
"I'm holding up quite well. As of now, my weakest point is losing people, losing children in these numbers and this huge amount of casualties. I go to sleep with this information about children who were killed and we are continuing to pray in order to prevent new losses of people, but so far we haven't attained these results," he said.
Zelenskyy, who is married with two children, added: "My children know for sure what is happening and I don't know whether it's good or bad."
English (US)