The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, explained why he approved a decision by the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) to prohibit negotiations with the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, in October 2022 through his decree. TSN reports on this, as stated by Kontrakty.UA.
According to him, at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Kremlin attempted to push its "peace" conditions through various negotiation platforms.
Zelensky provided this explanation on Saturday, January 25, during a joint press conference with the President of Moldova, Maia Sandu.
“Putin quickly began establishing numerous channels alongside separatists and representatives from other states to exert influence over Ukraine, our independence, and me... There were many negotiation processes, many shadow political corridors—I halted this by prohibiting any political figures in Ukraine from conducting negotiations with the Russian side or with Putin's supporters during the war. I simply realized that we and our relevant authorities could not control this,” emphasized the Ukrainian leader. Volodymyr Zelensky believes he made a completely fair decision.
“I am the President of Ukraine; I am the leader of these negotiations—and I prohibited everyone else. I understand that Putin does not like this because he had many channels. There are channels that everyone knows about because relevant individuals were arrested, and then we exchanged them for our military, while they also used other channels,” he noted.
At the same time, the Ukrainian president sarcastically commented on Putin's recent statement regarding a prohibitive "decree" on negotiations. “They [the Russians] still live in 1917 with the 'decree on peace,' a decree about this and that...” he remarked.
Recall that Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that it is unlikely to seriously conduct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine under Zelensky's "prohibitive decree."