The mayor of Odessa called for negotiations with Russia

We need to negotiate with Russia and look for compromises. This statement was made by the mayor of Odessa Gennady Trukhanov in interview newspaper Corriere della Sera.

“I think it’s important to negotiate in a political vein, the lives of millions of people are at stake,” Trukhanov said. He added that he would like to see “the return of Ukraine’s 1991 borders.” According to him, this goal should be approached gradually and compromises should be sought, avoiding “wall-to-wall logic”.

At the same time, Trukhanov called the decisions of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky from the beginning of the special operation “generally correct”, but added that if the Ukrainian leader had listened to the recommendations, then “everything would have been better.” He criticized Zelensky for not granting “greater autonomy to regions and municipalities.”

Since the beginning of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine, the parties have held talks several times. The first three face-to-face meetings took place in Belarus: on February 28, representatives of Russia and Ukraine met in the Gomel region, and then on March 3 and 6, negotiations continued in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. The fourth round of the Russian-Ukrainian dialogue took place on March 29 in Istanbul. But later the process was frozen. On May 17, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said that Ukraine had actually withdrawn from the negotiations.

After that, the Russian authorities repeatedly stated that Russia did not refuse negotiations with Ukraine. At the same time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov emphasized that Western countries are hindering this process by pumping weapons to Ukraine and thereby prolonging the conflict. In early August, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov clarified that at present “there are no negotiations, no prerequisites for them.”

The Ukrainian side does not seek to return to the negotiation process. On August 26, the head of Zelensky’s office, Mikhail Podolyak declaredthat the President of Ukraine opposes negotiations. According to Podolyak, negotiations in the current situation will be a death sentence for Ukraine.

Subscribe on Vedomosti on Telegram and stay up to date with the main economic and business news.