Mykhailo Podolyak, an Adviser to the Head of the President’s Office, believes that Russia’s awareness of the real level of its losses will force it to move to more constructive negotiations with Ukraine.
Source: Podolyak in his interview to the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
According to Podolyak, negotiations are held to create a system of security guarantees, which is impossible without the participation of the United States.
“Ukraine insists on a system of security guarantees, which will include countries that are ready to provide these guarantees, including in the military sense. Much more depends on this.”
Podolyak said that the issues of the temporarily occupied Crimea and other territories of Ukraine must be decided by the leaders of Ukraine and Russia. Moscow would become more constructive in peaceful talks when it realized that it would lose more than Ukraine.
“Our army needs to operate effectively. And for this we need our partners to help us adequately. If you do not want to make a no-fly zone, give us air defense systems so that we can close the sky. Then our cities will not be bombed. Second: give us weapons to unblock cities like Mariupol. Third: we need sanctions like the oil embargo, maximum restrictions on financial transactions, etc. “
