If Russia keeps at least part of Ukraine’s territories, war will be permanent – Podoliak

If at least part of the captured territory of Ukraine remains behind Russia, it will be a permanent place for provocations.

Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to the head of the Presidential Office, said this in an interview for the BBC.

According to him, the position of Ukraine is absolutely clearly articulated by President Zelenskyy - Russia should cease fire and immediately leave the territory of Ukraine in its entirety, including Crimea.

"If at least a part of the captured territory of Ukraine remains behind Russia, it will be a permanent place for provocations. They will invent bio-laboratories, I don't know, "flying squirrels", they will talk about shelling the people of Atlantis, for the protection of which a million Ukrainians must be destroyed. That is, if we leave it as it is, Russia will do anything in the territory of Ukraine, it will be a permanent war. We have to realize that. It cannot be that we sign some, conventionally speaking, Minsk-3, because then we will have to admit that in a year we will have a war again.

Then we will have to admit that we have to completely forget about the possibility of developing Ukraine, because our partners will also understand that if at least some territory remains in Ukraine under the control of separatists or some Russian proxies, or simply under the control of Russia, then for Ukraine it will absolutely be impossible to invest money, it will not be possible to return to Ukraine, it will not be possible to develop business in Ukraine. That is, Ukraine will be a territory that will not develop, it will be a ruin," says Mykhailo Podoliak.

He added that this is a working scenario for Russia. If it cannot absorb Ukraine, it will want it to look like a destroyed territory no one will invest in.

"Let's admit it and let's not play these games anymore. Therefore, let's put it simply. We are for peace, but I'm sorry, we did not come to the territory of the Russian Federation. The war is only in the territory of Ukraine. And there can be peace only when another state leaves our territory. That's it, period. After that, we will have the opportunity to take care of our security, our economy, return our people. The narratives have changed. The negotiation process, no doubt, we started at a different point. At the beginning, we talked about a ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian troops (on line of contact as of February 23, 2022)...," said Podoliak.

As reported by Ukrainian News Agency, Russia is sending a large number of troops to Crimea.

Previously, the high level of terrorist threat continued in Crimea.

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