Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has stated that the ongoing war with Russia cannot result in a win-win scenario for either side. He noted, “Between us, in this war, there cannot be a win-win situation. Due to the immense human losses, it ceased to be about victory for both sides from the very first day,” he remarked.
Zelensky emphasized that the only true victory now is to stop the war to protect human lives.
However, he pointed out that achieving this requires a shift in President Vladimir Putin’s mindset. Zelensky argued, “He has the largest territory in the world, and he needs, I don’t know, a few kilometers. Why? That is the question. It is very strange when some partners say, ‘Look, he only needs this part of Ukraine, just these few kilometers – and that’s it.’ No, that’s a crazy idea. No, he doesn’t need kilometers. He needs Ukraine. He wants Ukraine to become part of Russia,” Zelensky stated.
Context
- Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, mentioned in an interview with LSM published on September 11 that the most realistic option for ending the war, or at least stopping hostilities, is to cease them along the actual front line as of the day an agreement is reached.
- Currently, Russian forces occupy most of the territories in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, parts of Zaporizhzhia, Kherson (left bank), and Dnipropetrovsk regions, as well as Crimea. Occupied areas also include certain border sections of Kharkiv and Sumy regions and the Kinburn Peninsula (Mykolaiv region). However, on June 25, Ukrainian forces raised the Ukrainian flag in the latter region.
