Zelensky speaks out in favor of meeting with Putin

KYIV. March 22 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Without a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, it is impossible to understand what Russia is ready for, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

"I believe that without my meeting with the president of the Russian Federation in any format whatsoever, it is impossible to really get to the bottom of it: what they are ready for if we are not ready to [accept] these or those compromises," Zelensky said in an interview with public television companies from a number of European countries in the early hours of Tuesday.

The issue concerning the status of the "occupied territories", by which Kyiv means Crimea and Donbas, cannot be resolved at this stage, he said.

"I am ready to raise issues about the occupied territories at a meeting with the Russian president, but I am sure that this decision will not be adopted at this meeting," he said.

"The issue of Crimea and Donbas is a very difficult story. First of all, it is necessary to take the first step toward security guarantees. Once work on this block is over, let's talks about it," Zelensky said.

When specifying the issue of guarantees, Zelensky said, "They [guarantors] must say that they are admitting Ukraine to NATO and must stop playing with it, or say that they are not admitting [Ukraine to NATO] today, which is true. They themselves understand that they do not want to fight with Russia, which is why they are not admitting us... And we need to calm down here and say: okay, other guarantees."

"There are NATO member countries which want to be guarantors and cannot ensure our 100% membership in the alliance, but stand ready to do everything what the alliance would have to do if we were its members. And I think that it is a normal compromise," he said.

Such a compromise would suit all sides, the president said.

"It is a compromise for all: for the West, which does not know what to do with us as far as NATO is concerned, for Ukraine, which wants security guarantees, and for Russia, which does not want NATO to enlarge further and says that it had agreements to this effect with NATO countries. And this is where a compromise should be looked for," Zelensky said.

A format of a compromise with Russia must be endorsed at a referendum, he said.

"As regards security guarantees, we will be speaking about constitutional changes, amendments to legislation. And if we speak about it, it will be decided not only by the president, but also by the [Verkhovna] Rada and the people of Ukraine," Zelensky said.

"In all of these negotiations, when we speak about changes that could be historic, we cannot avoid holding a referendum. The people will have to say what they think and to give an answer to these or those formats of compromises. And what kind of compromises we will end up with will be result of talks between Ukraine and Russia," Zelensky said.