According to the President of Ukraine, he would like the process of peaceful settlement in Donbass to progress faster.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy believes that the launch of a dialogue with Russian leader Vladimir Putin has already yielded positive results.
“Our dialogue has begun with the President of the Russian Federation. We have had several phone conversations. We have created a format for our dialogue, which has led to some sensitive decisions. We have returned our prisoners, our ships. After three years without meetings, we were able to agree on a “Norman format”. After that, there was a second prisoner exchange – the biggest such exchange,” he told The Times of Israel.
“I think”,- Zelensky continued, -“he [Putin] understands my position: Ukraine is an independent country, we are the biggest country, the biggest in Europe. I think he understands”.
Answering a question about achieving peace in Ukraine, the president said that he “would never aspire to the presidency without such a goal” and would like the Donbas peace process to move faster. “There are very complicated issues”, – he stressed. – “I see progress, because the number of shootings has decreased significantly, but they are still present”.
The first phone conversation between Putin and Zelensky took place July 11, 2019, a month and a half after Zelensky took office as president. Later, the leaders had several more phone conversations. Their first face-to-face meeting was held on December 9 at the summit of the “Norman Quartet” in Paris.