A top Ukrainian official said Thursday that the war in Ukraine “can end in direct talks” between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the Head of the Office of President of Ukraine, said that while talks were possible, he was waiting to assess how Russia’s military offensive in the east of the country progresses in the coming days
This is what the team of lawyers, consultants and the negotiating group from the Ukrainian side are working on today,” he said. “Accordingly, we hope that the positions of President Volodymyr Zelensky will be extremely strong in these talks.”
Russia has shifted forces to Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region in what both Kyiv and Moscow have described as a major battle for control of eastern Ukraine.
Podolyak added:
They have enough resources, enough missiles, they unfortunately continue to bomb our cities. They still have manpower and equipment that they do not mind having destroyed in our fields. Therefore let’s wait for a while, and then we will be able to judge the positions of the parties, first of all of the President of Ukraine, at future bilateral meetings.”
Podolyak added that he believed it would become more clear how the situation may develop in the next week or week and a half.