Unblocking of relations with Russia possible with respect for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity – Zelensky
Unblocking relations with Russia is possible if it respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said.
"Regarding the signals from the Russian side that Mr. President [of Guinea-Bissau] conveyed: he said that Russia wants to ‘set up bridges and dialogue.’ I told the President [of Guinea-Bissau] what is happening here. It is very important. I said that there are bridges between these or those states … it is necessary that the infrastructure is not undermined. Then it will be possible to talk about something in the future. And who to talk to," Zelensky said at a briefing with the President of Guinea-Bissau.
According to him, Russia also conveyed to Zelensky that it was necessary to unblock relations.
"I also say: you need to unblock. Let's start unlocking at least our Black Sea. We need to start with some kind of unblocking," Zelensky said.
"Third, everyone is afraid that there is a nuclear threat. Lately, you know, everyone is talking about some kind of ‘dirty’ bomb. So, all this rhetoric comes from the Russian side. The threat is coming from them. They occupied our nuclear power plant [of Zaporizhia], threaten to undermine the hydroelectric power plant [Kakhovska], etc. We have what we have," the President of Ukraine added.
Therefore, Zelensky noted, in order to start any dialogue with the Russian Federation, it is necessary that Russia respects the sovereignty, borders and territorial integrity of Ukraine.
"It is necessary to respect in order to start any dialogue, and in order to talk about some kind of dialogue, it is necessary that one state respects the other. Respect territorial integrity, sovereignty and borders. I think that it is from such simple fundamental things that anything begins. So far, there is no such thing," Zelensky said.
At the same time, he called Putin's desire to start a conversation with Ukraine "nothing more than planned rhetoric that should work for the internal audience of the President of the Russian Federation and for the audience of those states that have not yet isolated politics between their state and the state called Russia."
