Ukraine's Foreign Minister expresses opinion on Ukraine's concessions to Russia for peace
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba expressed surprise and indignation that discussions about ways to end the Russian-Ukrainian war often focus on what concessions Ukraine could make for peace.
The host asked what kind of compromises Ukraine considers since both sides should make some concessions in the negotiations, and recalled the alleged draft peace agreement of March 2022, recently published by the media.
"I think one of the biggest successes of Russian propaganda, foreign policy propaganda is that they made people focus on what Ukraine has to concede, on what the compromises that Ukraine has to make. [This was] the case between 2014 and 2022. All the conversations were like what Ukraine will do to make Russia leave. But while we all established the fact that Russia committed a crime, we kind of make a completely flawed conclusion that Ukraine has to concede. To help Russia remedy the crime, or what? It's just crazy that we are even engaging in a conversation like that. Why don't we discuss what Russia has to concede to end the war?" said Kuleba in an interview with Foreign Policy.
"Yes, we can engage in this conversation about concessions. We can go to the most favourite story that [the] Russian Foreign Minister loves to tell everyone about the so-called agreements in Istanbul, which never existed. The question that we have to ask ourselves is why do we always start the conversation with the question what Ukraine has to concede? We categorically reject this line of thinking. We sacrificed enough, we have fought enough, and we deserve much more respect than a conversation of what else we can sacrifice," the Ukrainian Foreign Minister stressed.
Kuleba also recalled that everything done as constructive concessions in 2014-2022 did not help prevent a full-scale invasion.
Kuleba also explained why Ukraine sees no point in inviting Russia to the peace summit in Switzerland.
The Polish Foreign Minister expressed the opinion that the war's end will be possible when Putin knows he won't win.