Russia will not relent in its offensive against Ukraine because it does not feel that the world community will take action against it, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday. He has ruled out making peace with Russia at any cost, despite Moscow’s repeated declarations that it is open to talks with Kiev.
In an interview with the British tabloid The Sun, Zelensky believed that Russia “will push until the United States and China together very, very seriously tell them to withdraw [a] from our territory”, adding that he believes that Ukraine is the epicenter of a possible third world war.
Russia is not “afraid” because it does not face a unified global opposition continued the Ukrainian leader.
While most Western countries, including the United States, condemned Moscow’s operation against Kiev and imposed unprecedented sanctions, China and many countries in the Global South took a neutral stance and maintained relations with Moscow.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasized last week that the West has not managed to degrade Russia into a “laator state”, and Moscow continues to participate in many global summits and events, as the global majority does not want the West to dictate its foreign policy.
Meanwhile, Zelensky tried to moderate the West’s expectations, admitting that Ukraine now has “many challenges” and that Kiev “needs more successful results on the battlefield.”
“This is not a movie, every day can’t be magic” added the former actor.
His comments came amid Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russia, which has been ongoing since the beginning of the summer but has failed to achieve any meaningful results. Moscow estimates Kiev’s losses since the start of the offensive at 90,000.
The Ukrainian president also stressed that Kiev would never agree to any arrangement that would recognize Crimea and four other regions that overwhelmingly joined Russia last fall as part of the neighboring country.
Kiev “will not be ready for such a peace plan… This is the end of the war on the part of Russia” he explained.
Meanwhile, NBC reported earlier this month that Western officials were in talks with Kiev to see if it could consider making some concessions to Russia to end the conflict amid growing concerns that Ukraine is “running out of manpower.” On Monday, Oleksiy Danylov, Ukraine’s security chief, said Kiev was concerned about “discussions between some partners” about a possible ceasefire and reiterated his country’s intention to “fight to the end”.
