Zelenskyy simply stopped separatism in our state

The head of state announced this during a joint media briefing with Moldovan President Maia Sandu.

We had a decision of the National Security and Defense Council on whether we could talk to Russia or not. I signed this decree because Putin very quickly began to build a large number of different channels together with separatists and representatives of other states regarding influence on Ukraine, on our independence. There were many negotiation processes, many shadow negotiation corridors. I quickly stopped it. I simply stopped separatism in our state. I forbade anyone, any political figures in Ukraine, to hold any negotiations with the Russian side, with Putin's supporters during the war. This was when their troops were here, in the Kyiv region.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy

President of Ukraine

According to the President, the Russians tried to apply pressure at that time “through many different corridors.”

And our parliamentary corps, and the parliamentary corps of our European colleagues, and the United States, etc. There were many different negotiating platforms. I realized that we and our relevant bodies cannot control this.

He noted that he had made an "absolutely fair decision."

I am the President of Ukraine, I am the leader of these or those negotiations. I forbade everyone else from doing so. Putin, of course, did not like it, because he had many channels. There are channels that everyone knows about, because the relevant people were arrested, and then we exchanged them for our military, and they also used other channels, even in some of our institutions, which I am not ready to talk about publicly yet.

We will remind, in October 2022, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, by his decree, put into effect the decision of the National Security and Defense Council "On Ukraine's actions in response to the Russian Federation's attempt to annex the territories of our state, in order to guarantee the security of the Euro-Atlantic space, Ukraine, and restore its territorial integrity."

Zelenskyy revealed details of the negotiations

As reported by Head of State Volodymyr Zelensky, negotiations with the aggressor country in Istanbul failed because Moscow made cynical and unrealistic demands.

The head of state says that the Kremlin demanded that pro-Russian former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada, Viktor Medvedchuk, become the new president of Ukraine.

The point was that Donbas would completely come under Moscow's control, and Ukraine would have to recognize this by amending the Constitution.

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's team did not stop there and demanded a sharp reduction in the size of the Ukrainian army to 50,000 people and a vote for the country's neutral status.

Official Moscow also wanted the Russian language to become the state language.

According to Volodymyr Zelensky, during the negotiations in Istanbul, the team of the illegitimate Russian president wanted Ukraine to eliminate all its weapons with a range of more than 20 kilometers.