Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that Ukraine is ready to discuss adopting a neutral status as part of a peace deal with Russia, though the agreement would have to be guaranteed by third parties and put to a referendum.
“Security guarantees and neutrality, non-nuclear status of our state. We are ready to go for it. This is the most important point,” Zelensky said in a video call with Russian journalists, according to several reports.
Ukraine voted in 2014 to abandon its “neutral status” and seek NATO membership after Russia invaded and annexed Crimea.
Zelensky said no peace deal would be possible without a ceasefire and troop withdrawals and also declined to discuss several other Russian demands, including the demilitarization of the country.
“A referendum is impossible when there is the presence of troops,” he said. He argued that results from an occupied country would be “illegitimate.”
Zelensky rejected the possibility of trying to recapture all Russian-held territory by force. He suggested such an effort would lead to a third world war and added that he hopes to reach a compromise over the eastern Donbas region, which has been held by Russian-backed forces since 2014.
Russia’s state media regulator, Roskomnadzor, warned Russian media “of the need to refrain from publishing the interview” with Zelensky. The agency said it would review all media outlets that carried the interview to determine “the extent of responsibility and response measures.”
Zelensky said in the interview that Russia’s invasion destroyed Russian-speaking cities in Ukraine and refuted claims from Moscow that his country had curbed the rights of Russian speakers. He said Russia’s invasion wiped the cities “off the face of the Earth.”
The president drew attention to the port city of Mariupol, saying a “humanitarian catastrophe inside the city is unequivocal, because it is impossible to go there with food, medicine and water” given that all entries and exits from the city are blocked.
“I don’t even know who the Russian army has ever treated like this,” he said.
Russia has denied allegations that it is targeting civilians in Ukraine, though U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced last week that the U.S. government had made a formal determination that Russian troops have committed war crimes in Ukraine and that the administration would work with others to prosecute offenders.
Zelensky’s comments came one day after President Biden stunned many – including those in his own administration — when he said that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power” during a speech on the invasion of Ukraine at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland.
Administration officials immediately began to walk back Biden’s comment.
Blinken clarified on Sunday that the U.S. has no strategy of regime change in Russia.
“I think the president, the White House made the point last night that, quite simply, President Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else,” Blinken said at a press conference in Jerusalem.
“As you know, and as you’ve heard us say repeatedly, we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia or anywhere else, for that matter. In this case, as in any case, it’s up to the people of the country in question. It’s up to the Russian people,” he added.