The assistant to the head of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, the head of the Russian delegation at the talks in Istanbul, Vladimir Medinsky, said that Ukraine would lose more territories if it did not agree to Moscow's ultimatum. He said this in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, reports UNN.
Details
"It is impossible to wage a long war with Russia," Medinsky said, referring to the Russian Federation's 21-year war with Sweden in the 18th century as an argument that the country is winning in protracted battles.
Medinsky, who spoke to the Journal after the latest round of talks in Istanbul, downplayed the impact of a recent Ukrainian drone attack that destroyed at least 12 Russian bombers, saying it allegedly did not overshadow the talks.
The negotiations did not lead to any breakthrough, although the parties agreed on a series of prisoner exchanges.
"Medinsky threatens that the lack of compromise on the part of Kyiv will only lead to greater territorial losses," the Journal writes.
Ukrainian officials emphasize that Medinsky regularly referred to dubious interpretations of conflicts of past centuries during the negotiations in Istanbul in order to try to impose his arguments on the Ukrainian team.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Medinsky promotes the Russian narrative that the war that the Russian Federation started against Ukraine is allegedly a fratricidal struggle between two states with a common language and culture. He also cynically justifies the war they started by saying that supposedly the Russian Federation and Ukraine are essentially one people and are destined to be close allies.
As The Wall Street Journal writes, Ukraine stated that Russia's view of Ukrainians as younger brothers in one family is exactly the language that masks the expansionist ambitions that underlie Moscow's campaign.
If Russia claims to be a "brother" to any Central or Eastern European country, then it is Cain in this story, who is already holding a stone
Also in the interview, Medinsky warns Ukrainians that long wars with Russia end in inevitable defeat for its enemies.
However, The Wall Street Journal notes that some long wars waged by the Russians ended in defeat, including the nearly decade-long invasion of Afghanistan, which depleted Moscow's resources and ended in 1989 with the withdrawal of troops, which accelerated the collapse of the Soviet Union two years later.
Western officials say that Russia suffered ten times more losses in Ukraine than the Soviet Union during the entire Afghan campaign.
Addition
President Volodymyr Zelensky reported that the Russians told the Ukrainian delegation in Istanbul that they understand that their memorandum is an ultimatum and Ukraine will not accept it. Therefore, strong intermediaries are needed so that the Russian Federation cannot refuse the agreements reached at the negotiations. The USA does not look like a strong intermediary yet.