President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky considers the proposal to withdraw the Ukrainian Defense Forces beyond the Donetsk region to be unfair. As reported by an UNIAN correspondent, the head of state said this during an online briefing on WhatsApp.
"I believe that today the fair possible option should be 'we stand where we stand,' and this is true, because this is what a ceasefire is (UNIAN). The parties stand, and then diplomatically try to resolve all common issues. I know that Russia does not have a positive attitude towards this, but I would like the Americans to support us on this issue. But, to our 'we stand where we stand,' the Russians respond that we must withdraw from Donbas, or they will occupy it anyway," Zelensky said.
As the president noted, he spoke with the Americans on this topic.
"I said that there are many insinuations of various kinds here. For example, like with Kupyansk. They stated that they"occupied" Kupyansk, and we are"surrounded", etc. I was recently in Kupyansk, and showed who controls this city. There is also a lot of disinformation from the Russians. And therefore, I gave signals to our colleagues from the United States of America that we should not believe everything that the Russians say," Zelensky emphasized.
As the head of state emphasized,"Russia wants not to waste its strength and occupy the east of our state through diplomatic and political means."
Zelensky added that the US then proposed that the Russian army would not enter the part of eastern Ukraine controlled by the Ukrainian authorities, but that the Armed Forces of Ukraine should supposedly withdraw from there.
"I don't think it's fair. Because this economic zone, who will manage it? If we're talking about some kind of buffer zone along the contact line, and if we're talking about some kind of economic zone, and we believe that there should only be a police mission there, and the troops should withdraw, then the question is very simple: for example, if Ukrainian troops withdraw 5-10 km, etc., then why don't Russian troops withdraw deep into the occupied territories by the same distance?" Zelenskyy notes.
As the President of Ukraine said, there is no answer to this question yet, but it is very sensitive and very hot.
According to the British publication The Telegraph, in response to the insistence of the administration of US President Donald Trump on the creation of a"free economic zone" between the positions of Ukrainian and Russian troops in Donbas, Ukraine is proposing that Russia also withdraw its troops from Donbas.
The head of the council of reservists of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, military observer Ivan Tymochko, notes that the Russian dictator Putin is demanding the withdrawal of the Defense Forces from the entire Donetsk and Luhansk regions in order to start a cascade of such claims to those regions that the Russians cannot capture, but have hastened to include in the Russian Constitution.
