President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy is ready to discuss territorial issues during a meeting with putin.
This was stated in an interview with the American broadcaster NBC News by the First Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Serhii Kyslytsia in the program "Meet the Press".
The host asked Kyslytsia to comment on the statement of the Head of the russian Foreign Ministry Lavrov that the meeting between putin and Zelenskyy is not planned, and to say whether he believes that "this peace process is still moving forward, or has it stopped now?"
"No, I believe that it is moving forward, and moving gradually. Unfortunately, not as quickly as we would like. But I believe that this Monday and the meeting at the White House were extremely important events of recent months. And I believe that this was an important achievement in which President Trump played a decisive role," Kyslytsia said.
When asked about the possible timing of a direct meeting between Zelenskyy and putin, Kyslytsia replied that it would take at least a week "to prepare a reliable draft of a package of security guarantees for Ukraine."
"So, ideally, we can have the first draft sometime early next week, and then we have to decide, the political leadership has to decide how we will work with these drafts from the political side," Kyslytsia noted.
When asked what he thought the United States should do if the meeting between Zelenskyy and putin did not take place, and whether the US should impose additional sanctions against russia, Kyslytsia answered in the affirmative, emphasizing that "additional pressure should be almost instantaneous when the deadline that Trump has in mind expires."
"And then the russians should really feel the pain of not wanting to follow the path of peace that President Trump offered to the russian federation," the First Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine emphasized.
When asked about russia's claims to more territory than it has already illegally seized and the possibility for Ukraine to discuss these issues, Kyslytsia replied that President Zelenskyy "is guided by both the current legislation of Ukraine and public opinion, and the public is categorically against exchanging our land for peace."
"But when it came to territorial issues, President Zelenskyy clearly said that he was ready to sit down and discuss this with putin, starting the discussion of territorial issues from the line of combat clashes that currently exists," Kyslytsia said in an interview with NBC News.
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