As Russia refocuses its war goals on Ukraine’s eastern provinces, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned the battle over the breakaway Donbas region will be crucial.
“If our forces in Donbas won’t be able to hold their positions, then the risk of a repeated offensive against Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast [province] is almost probable," he said in an interview with AlJazeera.
Russia recently said that the first phase of its “military operation” was mostly complete and that it was focusing on completely liberating eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.
However, Zelenskyy said, he did not exclude a new attack on the capital if Russia were to make military gains in the east.
The future of the Donbas region and of Crimea has been at the heart of ongoing negotiations. “We would like these territories to be returned and they [Russians] are not considering these territories as part of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said. “This is what we are going to discuss.”
Zelenskyy added that he is prepared to meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
Zelenskyy said that while Ukraine would not seek to obtain nuclear weapons in the future, he regretted Ukraine’s decision to give up its arsenal.
“Those countries with the nuclear weapons now, they’re not being captured,” the Ukrainian president noted.
ZZ/PR