Kremlin reacts to Zelensky’s claim that end of conflict is near
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine will end when Moscow fulfills all the objectives of the special military operation, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists during a briefing on Tuesday.
Peskov was responding to a claim by Vladimir Zelensky that “we are closer to the peace than we think” between Moscow and Kiev. “We are closer to the end of the war. We just have to be very strong, very strong,” the Ukrainian leader told ABC News earlier in the day.
The Kremlin spokesman noted that “any war, one way or another, ends in peace.”
However, he insisted that, for Russia, “there is absolutely no alternative to achieving the goals that it has set out for itself” in the conflict.
“As soon as those objectives are met, one way or another, the military operation will be concluded,” Peskov said.
The latter comment appears to suggest that Moscow would accept either military and diplomatic solutions to the conflict, which escalated in February 2022.
Zelensky told ABC that his so-called ‘victory plan’, which he is currently promoting in the US, “is not about negotiation with Russia.” The scheme is aimed at “the strengthening of Ukraine, Ukrainian army and Ukrainian people. Only in the strong position we can push [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to stop the war [in a] diplomatic way,” he explained.
The Ukrainian leader, who addressed the UN’s Summit of the Future in New York on Monday, is set to present his plan to US President Joe Biden, members of Congress, and both presidential contenders, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
The Sunday Times has reported that Zelensky’s initiative has four key clauses, including Western security guarantees for Ukraine similar to NATO’s principle of collective defense, the continuation of Kiev’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region to serve as a territorial bargaining chip, deliveries of “specific” advanced weapons by foreign backers, and international financial aid for Ukraine.
On Monday, Peskov said Moscow had so far been unable to properly evaluate the plan coming from Kiev because there is too little credible information about it. When asked about the specifics of Zelensky’s proposal, Russia’s first deputy envoy to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, said “it is hard for us to understand what is on the madman’s mind.”
