Zelenskyy emphasizes need to get to restore state borders, not Feb 23 lines
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (Photo:Office of the President of Ukraine)
Even if the Ukrainian army gets back to the lines of Feb. 23, it will not be the end of the full-scale war unleashed by Russia since parts of the Ukrainian territory will remain occupied, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.
Speaking in an interview with the UK weekly newspaper The Economist on Dec. 15, Zelenskyy said that “settling along the lines of Feb. 23,” as proposed by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, “would not be a finale, as no one has respected the security guarantees (given to Ukraine).”
He reiterated that Ukraine had given away nuclear weapons, exchanged them for security guarantees, but they had not worked, and now “Ukraine alone is paying such a high price.”
“Why do I say ‘we have to go to our borders’?” the Ukrainian president said. “Because, if it does not work, he (Russian dictator Vladimir Putin) will come back.”
“Why am I against freezing this war? Because in Donbas we have already seen it. They take away part of the territory and then freeze it for some time, to become more powerful occupiers, ready for more occupation, and that’s all… Just to leave it as it is now, to say, ok, let’s stop and they take Donbas, the south of our country, or part of it, and Crimea remains with them...Why? ‘Because it is time to do so and you should’? We will not be able to, no one would forgive it.”
Earlier Zelenskyy said that Ukraine must de-occupy Crimea to end the full-scale war.
According to Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine needs 300 tanks, 600-700 IFVs (infantry fighting vehicles), and 500 howitzers to regain the territory it has lost since Feb. 23.
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