• Mykhailo Podolyak, one of Ukraine’s most powerful presidential advisers.
• He claims that Kyiv will enter negotiations with Russia once a realistic starting point is in sight.
• The Ukrainian goal is to restore state borders as of March 2014.

Mykhailo Podolyak, one of Ukraine’s most powerful presidential advisers, tells the media that there are effectively no channels of peace negotiations open between Kyiv and Moscow.

“There are only channels [of negotiations] about bodies exchange and PoWs exchange… Russia is a country for whom there is no humane approach to war or to treating civilians in occupied territories. Russia is a different civilisation,” he says.

“After six months of this war, we can’t continue believing that it will fulfil any agreements.”

Podolyak has been by President Volodymyr Zelensky’s side since the beginning of the full-fledged invasion and is a key figure shaping Ukraine’s position. He claims that Kyiv will enter negotiations with Russia once a realistic starting point is in sight, as opposed to what he calls a Russian ultimatum in which Moscow intends to annex all occupied territories.

According to Podolyak, Ukraine’s goal is to restore state borders as of March 2014, including Russia-annexed occupied Crimea. Otherwise, he claims, there will be no lasting peace.

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