“Diplomatic solutions are only good if you are strong, otherwise Putin will not participate. Otherwise, I don’t think they’ll be interested in any way they can stop the war.” Zelenskyy said in an interview with political scientist and CNN anchor Fareed Zakaria. “We have to be ready for diplomacy from a strong position, that’s a victory for us,” the president said.
Soon, Zelenskyy is going to Washington to present his plan to President Joe Biden (as well as Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, the candidates to succeed Biden). “If President Biden and his team agree and can give us something to strengthen our position, we’ll be ready,” assures.
“Putin recently said he is ready to negotiate, but his terms essentially mean total surrender for Ukraine,” Zakaria noted. “I think he hasn’t changed his main idea,” Zelenskyy replied. “Sometimes he’s just playing for other leaders who are waiting to hear from Putin about peace. He can give them some messages – to the Global South and all that. And then they can say “You see, Putin is ready for dialogue”. What dialogue? He is a player. And he feels that this weakness of the West and of the Global South… is looking for exactly those places where they don’t have unity, where they have different interests.”
According to Zelensky, Putin’s goal is not to stop the war, there is no need for it. He doesn’t care about winning either. “They are very afraid of Ukraine being successful,” said the Ukrainian president. “I’m sure they are afraid of only one thing – no leaders, no countries. He is only afraid of his own society, the Russian people. And when the Russian people will be in danger, when they will not have a comfortable life, when they will be without energy like our people, then they will realize the price of that war. They will not be happy and will start to assert their influence on Putin. That’s why I say, make Ukraine strong – and you’ll see that he will sit down to negotiate.”
