Ukraine not pressured into talks with Russia, no frozen conflict ahead - Presidential Office
Photo: Mykhailo Podolyak, Advisor to the Head of the Presidential Office (Vitalii Nosach, RBC-Ukraine)
The West is not pushing Ukraine to negotiate with Russia, but such “waves” will appear periodically in foreign media. Likewise, there should be no expectation of a frozen conflict, stated Mykhailo Podolyak, advisor to the head of the Presidential Office, in a commentary to the RBC-Ukraine.
"I understand that such waves (in Western media - ed.) will appear periodically. Because these people are like chess players. I say this ironically because they are sitting at a large chessboard, 10,000 kilometers away from the war, and they don’t fully grasp what it is or what Russia is like," Podolyak explained, but noted that there is no pressure on Ukraine.
According to the advisor to the head of the Presidential Office, after 2.5 years of full-scale war, Russia has failed to show what everyone feared. The predictions of a quick occupation of Ukraine have not materialized, and the enemy will definitely not be able to achieve this now.
He added that the West understands Ukraine is fighting effectively even with limited resources, so putting pressure on Kyiv would be strange.
Moreover, any freezing of the war would only preserve the political system in Russia, while the enemy would escalate, strengthen its army, seek resources, and heavily invest in propaganda. This propaganda would influence Western societies to stop supporting Ukraine.
"And we would face the next phase of the war—much larger, much more aggressive," Podolyak added.
Talks with Russia
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy supported the decision of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), which rules out any possibility of dialogue with Vladimir Putin. For the negotiations to resume, Russia must withdraw its troops from Ukrainian territory, undergo changes in its political leadership, acknowledge its crimes, and hand over the war's organizers for trial.
At the same time, Kyiv does not rule out the possibility of Russian representatives participating in the second Peace Summit.
