Six months after the launch of the Kremlin’s “special operation”, where is the situation in Ukraine? In an interview with our colleagues from the expressthe Ukrainian president insists that his country will one day or another find its territorial unity, including in Crimea and that victory will be at the end of the road.
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What gives him this hope is that Vladimir Putin’s Russia is stalling in the face of Ukrainian resistance. Volodymyr Zelensky assures him in this interview: the Ukrainian resistance is intact and the objective of the fighting remains the restoration of the borders Ukrainian. Lhe Russian army is now at an impasse, according to him.
“It is up to Russia to think how to end this war. Russia can choose to continue down the path it is on. They would like to take the country in three days, they have not succeeded. They know very well that this is a problem, a trap in which they have put their own people. Their people are trapped. The Russian people are trapped by the actions of their rulers. And now they have to find a solution”insists the Head of State, from his office in kyiv, during an interview conducted by our colleagues from The Express, Eric Chol, Charles Haquet and Cyrille Pluyette. “We conducted the video interview on August 17th“, specifies this Tuesday on franceinfo Eric Chol, editorial director of the magazine.
This is his first interview in a French newspaper since the start of the war.
For approximately 1 hour, the Ukrainian President @ZelenskyyUa confided in L’Express. Exclusive extracts ⤵️
➡️ https://t.co/DTSaDeVcsU
In partnership with @BFMTV #WeTheUkrainians pic.twitter.com/0l2Av9hhYE
— The Express (@LEXPRESS) August 23, 2022
For Volydymir Zelenski, there is therefore no question of a ceasefire which would freeze the conflict and establish the occupation of the Russian army in the areas it controls today, and in particular the east of the country. “Our soldiers fight day to day for our country. And the price of each of these days is not just a question of money: it is first of all a human cost, that of the lives of our soldiers. Russia is advancing every day and, every day, we are defending ourselves (…) even if it is very small steps”, assures the Head of State. A counter-offensive to reconquer these provinces lost today is possible, assures the Ukrainian president, but he does not hide that it depends on the supply of weapons by the Westerners who are still lacking to him.
From the presidential palace in kyiv, he also discusses the tense issue of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in very worrying terms: “It is an atomic power plant six times larger than that of Chernobyl: in the event of a disaster, the danger will not be limited to the European continent! It will be nuclear war without nuclear weapons: we must be aware that this scenario can happen and would lead to a disaster on a planetary scale. (…) The whole world has sent warnings to the Russians, but these are terrorists ! (…) The risks are very high! Currently this plant is in the hands of armed people, equipped with mines and grenades.”
Asked about the conditions of this interview, Eric Chol, editorial director of the magazine, told franceinfo that cThey had been preparing for this interview for several months: “We found in him an incredible energy, he answered each of the questions for a little over an hour, systematically defending his country. While calling for help from the European Union and France“, says the journalist, who says he felt Volodymyr Zelensky “extremely determined“.
When L’Express asks the president how long the war will last, the latter assures us that it will continue as long as Ukraine has not restored its borders: “He explained to us that the conflict started in 2014, during the annexation of Crimea. And that this region too would remain Ukrainian“, precise Eric Chole.