Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the President’s Office, denied the statement that agreements were allegedly reached with the Russian Federation in Istanbul in March of last year.
Podoliak told the German publication about this Bildwhich asked him to comment on the statements of some well-known personalities in Germany who are “very concerned” about the possibility of escalation.
“This is a big deception… There was no agreement with Russia in March 2022,” the adviser to the head of the OP assured.
He specified that when Ukraine still did not understand what kind of war Russia was waging, Kyiv offered to withdraw Russian troops and then sit down at the negotiating table and discuss all the disputed issues. One of the suggestions was that Ukraine needs clear and understandable security guarantees. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed the following: withdraw the troops to the position on February 23, and then sit down at the table and discuss sensitive issues for Ukraine and Russia, said Podolyak, commenting on the statement of one of the leaders of the Left Party, Sara Wagenknecht. She said, in particular, that “apparently, during the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul in March 2022, a document was already agreed upon, in which both sides agreed that the Russians would withdraw behind the lines before the invasion, and Kyiv would renounce NATO membership.”
Wagenknecht also stated the need to “end this horror, not to continue it indefinitely with the supply of weapons” and to force the parties to sit down at the negotiating table and seek a peaceful solution.
To this, Podolyak replied: “This person says that Ukraine must surrender, Ukraine must kneel, Ukraine must fulfill Russia’s ultimatum, Ukraine must die,” because either he does not understand the essence of this war, or if he does, he speaks exclusively in the interests of Moscow
The Ukrainian politician offered the show star Dieter Bohlen, who also wants peace talks, a freeze on the conflict and complains about sanctions, to come to Ukraine and realize on the spot that on February 24, 2022, a 250,000-strong army with armored vehicles attacked the neighboring country, fired on residential buildings neighborhoods with more than 6,500 rockets and destroyed more than a thousand settlements.
To the fears of Emma magazine editor Alisa Schwarzer about the “danger of a world war that is constantly approaching,” Podolyak remarked: “There will be no globalization of war if we get the weapons we need in time… Ukraine will fight to the end. And Russia will not stop if it does not lose, Russia will continue to invest in chaos and criminalization of Europe, in terrorist organizations and political interference.”
In response to the remarks of other persons who think about the need to “take into account the security interests of Russia”, the adviser of the OP advised to “deeper understand the nature of this war”, which is not about NATOnot about sanctions, not about security guarantees of the Russian Federation, not about some multipolar world, but about the demonstrative destruction of another state.
“We will not be able to negotiate with Russia, because Russia wants to have the right to kill us, Russia wants to take away our sovereignty… Our people say that this war must be fought to the end. This is very important, we want war criminals to be punished. We want the people who killed tens of thousands of our fellow citizens to appear before the court.”
As reported, the position of the official Berlin is that Germany will support Ukraine in its just struggle against the aggressor humanitarian, financial, as well as with weapons, as long as it is necessary.