Russia has censored the Zelenskyy peace ground rules
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed some of his country’s ground rules for a peace agreement with Russia on Sunday, but Russian authorities moved to censor the interview, perhaps because Zelenskyy also said that while Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed the invasion aims to “denazify” Ukraine, peace talks with Russia have not involved any discussion on Ukraine’s supposed “Nazism.”
Zelenskyy spoke with Russian media outlets, saying that his country is open to guaranteeing Ukraine’s neutrality and its nuclear-free status, but its representatives will not sign any agreement until Russian troops withdraw from the country. The Ukrainian president also said that the entire process hinges on him personally meeting with Putin and the Ukrainian people agreeing to a referendum to change the Constitution – a referendum that cannot take place while Russian troops remain in Ukraine.
“We must have agreements with President Putin. The guarantors will not sign anything if the troops are not withdrawn,” Zelenskyy said, according to the presidential office. A personal meeting would be “enough to start the process of troops withdrawal.”
“The troops must be withdrawn, the guarantors will sign everything, and all this will start working. Ratifications in parliaments, a referendum in several months, and only then – amendments to the Constitution,” the president explained.
A referendum is necessary “because only the people can decide that there can be such a status and such guarantors,” Zelenskyy argued. “The referendum will take place in a few months, and the amendments to the Constitution will take at least a year. According to our current legislation.”
The president noted that, during peace talks with Russian diplomats, “We do not discuss ‘denazification’ and demilitarization at all. I said that we will not sit at the negotiating table at all if we talk about some kind of demilitarization, some kind of ‘denazification’. For me, these are completely incomprehensible things.”
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