Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov on April 23, 2023, urged world leaders not to push Ukraine into peace talks with Russia and to supply it with more weapons instead, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
“Give us enough weapons”
“Don’t keep seating us at the negotiating table; give us enough weapons,” Danilov wrote on Facebook. “Weapons are the best mediator and the only argument Russia understands.”
He said that as long as the goal of the Russian aggressor remained unchanged, calls for negotiations amounted to “nothing other than pro-Russian peacemaking.”
Response to Italy
Danilov’s remarks came after Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto called for Ukraine and Russia to negotiate, with China acting as a mediator.
Kyiv’s position
Ukraine has insisted that any peace must be based on the withdrawal of Russian troops from all Ukrainian territory, as set out in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s 10-point peace formula. Kyiv has rejected calls for a ceasefire that would freeze the front line, arguing it would allow Russia to regroup and keep the land it has seized.
China published a 12-point position paper on the war in February 2023, which Ukraine and its Western partners said lacked credibility because it did not call for Russia to withdraw its forces.
Sources
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