(Joshua Paladino, Headline USA) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that his nation will compromise with Russia about the status of the Donbass region and the two breakaway nations, the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic, the New York Post reported.
“A new round of negotiations is ahead, because we are looking for peace. Really. Without delay,” Zelensky said. “As I was informed, there is an opportunity and a need for a face-to-face meeting already in Turkey. This is not bad. Let’s look at the result.”
He said Ukraine must maintain its “sovereignty and territorial integrity” and receive “effective security guarantees” in order to achieve “peace and the restoration of normal life…as soon as possible,” the Nottingham Post reported.
Earlier in the war, Zelenskyy had shown his willingess to accept Ukraine’s neutrality and to keep it out of NATO, as Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded for more than 20 years.
“More and more people in the world are on the side of Ukraine, on the side of good in this battle with evil,” Zelenskyy said in his speech on March 27.
Zelenskyy’s willingness to negotiate contrasts with Ukraine’s top intelligence official, who promised prolonged war rather than a negotiated peacce.
Ukraine’s intelligence chief claimed that Russia is abandoning its plan to capture Kyiv in order to focus soldiers and resources on the southern and eastern fronts.
“[Russia] will try to impose a dividing line between the unoccupied and occupied regions of our country,’’ Ukrainian Brig. Gen. Kirill Budanov said about Russia’s strategy.
With this strategy, Russia would split the Donbass region, Crimea and Mariupol from Ukraine, leaving the nation with its western and central territory.
“This is an attempt to create North and South Korea in Ukraine,” Budanov said.
He added that Ukraine would use guerilla warfare to prevent Russia from establishing control over these breakaway regions.
Guerilla tactics would result in the “quagmire” that many American strategists want to see in Ukraine because they believe that a long-lasting war would destablize Russia and threaten Putin’s presidency, USA Today reported.
“The season of a total Ukrainian guerrilla safari will soon begin. Then there will be one relevant scenario left for the Russians: how to survive,” Budanov said.
