President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that a popular referendum would make it possible to amend the Constitution on the neutral status of Ukraine in a few months, which is faster than the parliamentary procedure for constitutional amendments.

"Changes of this or that status, and security guarantees imply a neutral status – this is a constitutional change. These are two sessions [of the Parliament], two sessions is a year. Can you imagine how long all this can be? A referendum is a step faster. Because only the people can decide that there will be such a status and such guarantees. The referendum will take place within a few months, and amendments to the Constitution [through the parliament] will take place for at least a year, in accordance with current legislation," Zelensky said in an interview with Russian journalists published on the website of the President's Office.

The head of state stressed that Ukraine is ready to amend the Constitution in terms of neutral status.

"Security guarantees and neutrality, a non-nuclear status of our state. We are ready to go for it. This was the first point of principle for the Russian Federation. And as far as I remember, they started a war because of this ... The point of security guarantees for Ukraine is being discussed. It is deeply worked out," he said.

"But I am interested that this is not another piece of paper a la the Budapest Memorandum. Therefore, we are interested in this paper turning into a serious agreement that will be signed by all guarantors of this security. It must be ratified by the parliaments of the guarantor countries and there must be a referendum in Ukraine," he added.

Also, according to Zelensky, an agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine cannot be signed while Russian troops are in Ukraine.

"Representatives of the guarantor countries will not sign anything if we have troops. I believe that the war can be quickly ended and only Putin and his entourage are pulling. None of the guarantors – Johnson, Biden, who will sit down? Duda? Erdogan? Who will sit down to talk about something if there are troops? Who will sign something? There will be nothing. It's impossible. Therefore, there is no need to wait for amendments in the law. When the Russian side said – let's first amend the law, then withdraw the tanks – well, we look at them as people who have a shallow understanding of political processes from the point of view of the law," the president said.

"Therefore, we must have agreements with President Putin. To reach an agreement, he needs to withdraw troops from Ukraine and come to meet me. Any point in the world except, I think, a pointless meeting in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine. Therefore – we met, agreed – this is enough, with signatures, seals, to begin the process of withdrawing troops. The troops must be withdrawn, the guarantors will sign everything. Then ratification in the parliaments, a referendum – a few months, and after the amendment to the Constitution," Zelensky said.

The head of state also separately stressed that the issues of denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine were not discussed at the meetings of the Ukrainian and Russian delegations.

"We don't discuss denazification and demilitarization with the Russian Federation at all. For me, these are generally incomprehensible things ... Our side said that there can be no denazification and demilitarization. We are not interested in these points at all," the president summed up.