In an interview with ICTV, the leader of the presidential race in Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, said that the conflict with Russia in Donbas can only be resolved through diplomacy.
“We need negotiations with Russia. Of course, I think that they should be held with witnesses — the United States and the EU representatives. This is the best format. I do not know how it will work. I can’t take make promises… But I think it is possible to reach an agreement with Russia to introduce peacekeepers on the demarcation line. Then the peacekeepers go to cities and villages, and then to Donetsk and Luhansk,” he said.
At the same time, Zelensky considers it important to win the information war.
“People who live in the occupied territories should return to the field of understanding that they are Ukrainians. For this you need to make a powerful Russian-language channel that would be international and broadcast in the territory of Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk, in the territory of Europe, the USA and Israel. It needs to pragmatically show real news and real life in Ukraine. We would tell people that they were deceived,” the candidate said.
If we succeed in winning an information war, then “the people themselves will help us return these territories,” Zelensky is sure.
Zelensky also believes that residents of Donetsk and Luhansk have to be paid pensions. At the moment, in order to receive Ukrainian pensions, residents of the territories controlled by the “DNR” and “LNR” must travel to the territory controlled by the Kyiv authorities.
As for Crimea, according to Zelensky, this region will return to Ukraine only after the change of power in Russia.
According to the latest case studies, comedian Volodymyr Zelensky is leading the election race in Ukraine. According to the Center for Social Monitoring and the Ukrainian Institute of Social Research, 29.4% of Ukrainians are ready to vote for Zelensky, 17.2% for Yulia Tymoshenko, 14.9% for Petro Poroshenko.
