Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s interview with the BBC was released today, and he made matters clear. The counteroffensive will not proceed without more weaponry. His allies should stop pressing Ukraine to negotiate. Russia has a “policy of destruction of all civilians,” and this is the reason that friendly countries that allow Russia to evade sanctions must be sanctioned themselves, that Russia must be isolated with much more powerful sanctions. Then Russians can rid themselves of their leaders.
On the vaunted counteroffensive: “We are waiting for the appropriate armored vehicles” to arrive. We could go now, but “we will lose a lot of people. I believe it is impossible. So you have to wait. We need some more time.” And it may not “fully restore immediately” Ukraine’s sovereignty, so the fighting will have to go on afterwards.
The Vatican, Brazil, China, possibly Arab countries, even European countries are proposing negotiations, and we’ll work with any of them, as long as they start with Ukraine’s peace plan (which translates to, Russia must leave Crimea, the Donbass, Zaporozhye, and Kherson). Even so, now is not the time, as Russia’s “army is broken” and they will use “a frozen conflict” to rebuild. So, “success is not allowing the conflict to freeze, and moving forward, de-occupying our land…. [W]e will not let them freeze the conflict…. I believe that no country in the world has the right” to push Ukraine on negotiations, because it is Ukrainians who are dying.
