Only diplomacy can end war: Zelenskyy

Kyiv, May 21 (EFE).- The war Russia is waging in Ukraine will only end with a diplomatic resolution, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday, despite the fact that peace talks between the two sides have been suspended for weeks.

“Victory will be very difficult (…) It will be bloody, definitely won on the battlefield, but the ending will definitely be in diplomacy,” Zelenskyy said in a televised interview broadcast to mark the third anniversary of his inauguration as president.

“It was not us who started this war, but we will have to end it,” he said.

Mykhail Podolyak stated this week that the negotiation process between Ukraine and Russia had been suspended, while the Kremlin has blamed Kyiv for the breakdown in talks.

The last meeting between the two negotiating teams was held on April 22, according to Russian media.

In the interview, Zelenskyy also said Ukraine’s forces had “cracked the spine” of Russia’s armed forces, which “won’t be back on their feet for the next few years”.

But he also urged his compatriots to adjust their expectations, insisting that a return to the situation before February 24 — the day Russia launched its invasion — would represent “victory”.

“I’d consider it a victory for our state, as of today, to advance to the February 24 line without unnecessary losses,” he said. EFE

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