November 30, 2023
Zelenskyy says no Ukraine peace talks until full Russian withdrawal
President worries Israel-Hamas war will sap aid to his beleaguered country
KYIV -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said cease-fire negotiations with Moscow can only begin once the Russian military completely pulls out of his country.
"There will be an understanding of peace and security in the future only if Russian troops are not on our territory," Zelenskyy said in a group interview in Kyiv with Nikkei and other international media organizations.
With the war at an apparent stalemate, some Western leaders are showing signs of "Ukraine fatigue" as the conflict between Israel and Hamas consumes their attention. Calls for a cease-fire between Moscow and Kyiv are growing.
Zelenskyy was adamant there would be no peace talks under the current conditions. "We cannot recognize our territories as the territories of the Russian Federation," he said.
"We are grateful for all the help we have received, but time played tricks on us and was not on our side in this situation," he said. "It is very difficult to recapture territory that is fortified, and where the fortifications are built in several lines. It is difficult for people."
Zelenskyy acknowledged that his country is struggling militarily, saying Ukraine's forces are "still not fully equipped with the brigades, with the weapons we needed, and the total dominance of Russia in the sky. There is simply not enough air defense equipment."
"Without this, it is very difficult. If you cannot get rid of their total control of the sky, and if they are not blind, they see everything. And they will not let you move quickly, so we are moving forward very slowly."
Zelenskyy also expressed concern that backing from major countries may weaken as the Israel-Hamas war continues into its eighth week.
"Everyone understands that they have forgotten about Ukraine and switched to the situation in the Middle East," he said. "I believe that this is exactly what the Russian Federation was trying to achieve, and I am sorry to say that they have achieved the result they wanted."
Zelenskyy pointed to the 2015 Minsk agreement between Kyiv and Moscow to explain why he does not want to open negotiations for a truce. That deal sought to halt the conflict that began when Russian-backed separatists seized swaths of eastern Ukraine following Russia's 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.
"We had a cease-fire. We were sitting at the table with Russia. ... It didn't work out," he said. Once it has a chance to recover from the latest round of fighting, "Russia will come back again."
Zelenskyy said the Ukraine peace summit, the third installment of which was held in Malta in late October, offered a better alternative to cease-fire talks. More than 60 countries gathered on the Mediterranean island to discuss a peace plan, but Russia was notably absent.
"The next meeting, we believe, will be the first summit at the level of leaders" to broaden support for Ukraine's peace plan, which calls for the complete withdrawal of Russian troops and other steps.
The Ukrainian president also said he would like greater Chinese involvement in the talks over a peace formula.
"China has a great influence on the Russian Federation," he said. "We would not want China to provide any kind of military assistance to Russia, and this does not refer to individual weapons. It concerns various technologies that China has."
Without China's support, "Russia is isolated," Zelenskyy said.
He also said he had high hopes for Japanese technical cooperation in developing Ukraine's air defense capabilities, and expressed concern about North Korea ramping up military assistance to Russia.
"We realize how many millions of shells North Korea has and how much it can supply, as it will have to keep something for its own use. Yes, it's a large amount," he said.