Ukraine needs a victory over Russia “on the battlefield” before any peace talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the British daily Financial Times on Tuesday.
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“Victory must above all be on the battlefield,” said the president, repeating that his country needed at least “as many weapons as the Russians”.
“For the moment, we cannot move forward in a powerful way” without suffering heavy losses, he stressed, calling on Ukraine’s Western allies to provide more weapons to his country.
Asked what Ukraine would consider a “victory” in this war, Mr. Zelensky judged that the return to the situation before the Russian invasion on February 24 would be “a serious provisional victory” before the end of the total occupation of the country.
Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014 was followed by a clash with Moscow-backed pro-Russian separatists who took control of large swathes of the country’s east before the invasion began Russian.
Asked about the talks with Russia interrupted since the end of March, the Ukrainian president replied that he had “not changed” his position on the fact that “all war must be ended at the negotiating table”.
“I am ready for direct talks with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, whether I like it or not, but if we are talking about ending the war and not blah blah. I am ready for this. I don’t think there’s anyone else to talk to in Russia,” he said.