Kravchuk did not rule out direct negotiations with the LDPR
For peace to come to Donbass, people in the region must declare their desire to return to Ukraine and demand from Moscow a cessation of hostilities on Kyiv’s terms.
The new head of the Ukrainian delegation at the negotiations in Minsk, the first President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk, stated this on Radio Liberty, funded by the US State Department, the PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“We want to introduce into the TCG a person who knows Donbass well, who lived and worked in Donbass. And the main thing for us is to hear from the people who live in Donbass. We declare that these are Ukrainians, and this is our territory, and this is correct, because it is not recognized by anyone, it is Ukrainian.
But in order to establish peace, you need to know not only the desires of the leaders of this part of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, but also the people who live there,” the ex-president said.
He emphasized that one can only talk with those who have nothing to do with management activities in the LDPR or the war.
“In order to convince Moscow, you need not only the desire of Kyiv - it is so important to convince. And when this is also the desire of the people who live there, then Moscow will hear better and will meet the people halfway. I believe in it.
The people who live there now do not demand an end to the war, because they do not see their prospects, they do not see their future. They were deceived by Kremlin propaganda; they see Ukraine as their enemy.
For example, instead of empty talk about statuses and everything else, we propose introducing a free economic zone standard in these areas. If this is accepted, then people will immediately get involved in work, investments will come, the economy will be restored, the housing stock will be restored, people will return and see a future. Today they do not see such a prospect, and I think that their prospect is Russia. They are wrong,” the politician added.
He also supported the initiative of former Prime Minister of Ukraine Vitold Fokin to go to the LDPR and did not rule out that he himself would have to “conduct a dialogue.”
“If conditions arise when I, Leonid Makarovich Kravchuk, need to study something for a solution, I will also do how to do it, and I do not exclude direct contacts,” Kravchuk concluded.
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