Ukrainian authorities are not ready to compromise with Russia on concluding the armed conflict, including changing the country’s borders, head of the Ukrainian presidential office Andrey Yermak said during a visit to Washington.
According to him, Kiev will listen to any advice on how to achieve a "just peace." "But we (are) not ready to go to the compromise for the very important things and values ... independence, freedom, democracy, territorial integrity, sovereignty," Reuters quoted him as saying.
That said, replying to a question as to how the Ukrainian government assesses potential steps by US presidential candidate Donald Trump on resolving the conflict, should he become president, Yermak said: "Honest answer: I don't know. Let's see." He also noted that Ukraine will try to convince the new US administration to continue supporting the Kiev regime.
On July 2, at a briefing, following talks in Kiev, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that he had proposed to Vladimir Zelensky to agree to a ceasefire. At the same briefing, Zelensky did not mention this initiative at all.
Later, deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential office Igor Zhovkva said that such initiatives cannot be considered in isolation from other settlement aspects.
At a meeting with senior Russian diplomats on June 14, Russian President Vladimir Putin put forward new terms for resolving the Ukraine conflict.
These include pulling out Ukrainian troops from the four new Russian regions and lifting all Western sanctions on Russia.
He also demanded that Kiev drop its bid for NATO membership and Ukraine’s non-aligned and non-nuclear status be enshrined.
Putin also pointed out that if Ukraine and the West reject these terms, they may change in the future. Kiev quickly rejected this initiative.