President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to hold a meeting in Donbass. He announced this in the course of a video message, which was distributed by the office of the Ukrainian leader.
He said that at a meeting of political advisers to the Normandy Four on April 19, it was proposed to meet on the line of contact in order to resolve the conflict.
“I am ready to go even further and offer you [Владимиру Путину] to meet anywhere in the Ukrainian Donbass where the war is going on, ”Zelensky said.
Zelensky also recalled the words of Putin, which he uttered in 2015 at a meeting with members of the Valdai International Discussion Club, that “if a fight is inevitable, you need to hit first.” At the same time, Zelensky noted that “every leader must understand that a fight cannot be inevitable when it is not about a gateway and hooligans, but about a real war and millions of human lives.” According to him, “all sides are losing in the war”, “you cannot protect someone by attacking” and “it is impossible to bring peace in a tank”.
As Zelensky pointed out, at the talks of the trilateral contact group on Donbass and the meetings of the Normandy Four advisers, it was proposed to meet on the contact line in order to see and understand the situation as accurately as possible.
“What should I understand? I go there every day, ”Zelensky said.
The meeting of political advisers and representatives of the Foreign Ministries of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine was held on April 19. According to a source in the Russian delegation, the Russian Federation’s proposals on a mechanism to prevent the escalation of firefights “ran into obstruction by Ukraine.”
Representatives of the FRG and France, instead of specific decisions in this area, came up with a proposal for “an unaddressed declarative political statement of adherence to the ceasefire regime.”
Zelenskiy, in turn, accused Russia of “refusing to support the general statement.”
Earlier, on April 19, the faction of the presidential party “Servant of the People” demanded to terminate diplomatic relations with Russia, writes “Gazeta.ru”. The deputies called for the call of reservists to the Armed Forces and the start of mobilization measures, they also plan to ask the UK and the United States to send their troops to the territory of Ukraine.
Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian president, has repeatedly stated that Moscow is not a party to the conflict in Ukraine. On April 14, he noted that de-escalation on the territory of Ukraine can occur only after Kiev refuses provocative actions.
Since 2014, Kiev has been conducting a military operation against the residents of Donbass, who refused to recognize the results of the coup and the new government in Ukraine. In this situation, the Ukrainian authorities continue to blame Russia. Conflict settlement issues are being discussed in the “Minsk” and “Normandy” formats – with the participation of Ukraine, Russia, France, Germany.