Zelensky: Russia’s peace memo never meant to be accepted

President Volodymyr Zelensky stated this in an interview with the American television channel Newsmax, as reported by Ukrinform.

“Russia wrote a so-called proposal, and they clearly understand: everything written there contradicts the Constitution of Ukraine, the law, international law, and the will of the Ukrainian people. They didn’t write it for us to accept it,” said the President.

Zelensky emphasized that anyone who genuinely wants to end a war looks for compromise, but instead, the Russians issued an ultimatum — the same kind as in 2022. “It’s an ultimatum designed so that Ukraine could never fulfill it,” he stressed.

At the same time, Zelensky pointed out that Russia is the aggressor — “they came to us, and it should have been the entire world issuing ultimatums to them.”

He described Ukraine’s willingness to negotiate with the Russian delegation as, in itself, a major concession and act of compromise. Ukraine has shown that it is ready to do anything for peace, except accept ultimatums, the President stated.

Zelensky also reminded that Russia has historically sought to destroy Ukrainians and their identity.

“How can they talk about ‘protecting Russian-speaking people’ if it was Russians who were doing most of the killing in the east of Ukraine — the very region where the majority of Russian-speaking Ukrainians lived? How can they raise the issue of the ‘Russian’ church? Faith is a matter of individual will. Freedom. Yet Putin barges in under the church bells and tells people how to cross themselves,” Zelensky said.

He underscored that the Russian dictator does not recognize Ukraine as an independent state, separate from Russia.

As reported, a second round of talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations took place in Istanbul on June 2. The first meeting was held on May 16.

Following the June 2 negotiations, the head of the Ukrainian delegation, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, stated that the Russian delegation had handed Ukraine "its document."

Photo: Office of the President of Ukraine