Ukraine can still emerge victorious from the military confrontation with Russia, provided that the West stops fearing Russian President Vladimir Putin and removes all obstacles to conducting attacks on strategic targets on Russian territory. This was stated in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who did not rule out future negotiations with Russia, but only through intermediaries. Ukraine and its Western partners, Zelensky said, have different ideas of victory: “The West wanted to deny Putin the opportunity to occupy Ukraine entirely and put the aggressor in his place. I think this is already a victory for them,” the president argued, explaining, however, that from the Ukrainian point of view, victory means “not allowing the complete destruction of everything Ukrainian,” and above all, gaining guarantees of long-term economic and military security.
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“We should be in the European Union for economic security, and in NATO for physical security,” the president said, warning that otherwise Russian aggression could be repeated in the future. Zelensky did not rule out the possibility of negotiations with Russia in the near future, but on the basis of favorable conditions for Kiev, and only through intermediaries. In this regard, the president cited as a possible model the grain agreements negotiated with the mediation of the United Nations and Turkey, extending them to issues such as territorial integrity and energy security: but always on the basis of the Ukrainian peace formula, which calls for the withdrawal of Russian forces from all occupied territories. “The idea of giving up our territories does not solve the problem,” the president said.
