The Romanian Defense Minister Vasile Dâncu said on Oct. 8 in an hour-long interview on the Prima TV channel that “the war in Ukraine will continue” and that “the only chance Ukraine could have and the only chance for peace can be negotiations with Russia.” He added, “Of course, this is a complex negotiation, as Ukrainians have launched a document for all the European countries and NATO, which aims to give security guarantees to Ukraine for the future. It’s after all about international negotiations. The countries of the world, NATO, the United States should negotiate security guarantees for Ukraine and a peace with Russia. Ukraine alone will not be able to negotiate with Russia, because the political class in Ukraine at the moment cannot afford to assume ... the loss of territory, an unfair loss of territory after all. It would be too big a political defeat.” Dîncu also said: “Russia has the resources to prolong the war” and that “ideally, it would be to reach a situation of negotiation, even if it ends in a frozen conflict, negotiation would still do more good than what is happening now, the destruction of human lives, of goods.”
This common sense statement from a defense minister who is far from being labeled as “pro-Russian,” produced a storm in Romanian politics and mass-media, with voices calling for his resignation. The Pro TV internet site reports that Socio-Democratic Party “PSD sources claim that several foreign embassies have complained about the inappropriate statements of the Defense Minister. The same sources claim that the Defense Minister should leave office by the end of this week.” President Klaus Iohannis said: “Only Ukraine will decide when, how and what it negotiates. This is our official position, that of the EU, and perhaps some of our dignitaries need to read the press more often to discover these positions.” The Prime Minister said he needed explanations. Today’s government is a coalition between Social-Democrats and Liberals and Dâncu is a Social-Democrat.
The Romanian news site HotNews.ro reported on Oct. 10 President Zelenskyy’s reaction: “Today I want to make this appeal to those in the world who are subject to Russian manipulation about supposed negotiations, about assumptions that only negotiations can end this cruel Russian terrorist war. Does the terrorist state want peace? Obviously not. It proves it every day and every night.” Zelenskyy added: “And we need fundamental and sufficient assistance for Ukraine, for our people, who are a target for a terrorist state. We need to speed up the delivery of a sufficient number of effective air defense systems to Ukraine. … We are conducting negotiations on the provision of such defense systems, negotiations on increasing other defense, political and financial support for Ukraine. This is the only possible negotiating format that can bring peace closer.”
