Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been adamant about how the war will end, as talks between Moscow and Kyiv reach a stalemate.
The war in Ukraine can only end in "diplomatic" ways, Zelensky said.
Only diplomacy will bring the solution
"The end (of the conflict) will be diplomatic," he told Ukrainian television network ICTV. The war "will be bloody, it will have battles, but it will end definitively through diplomacy".
"Talks between Ukraine and Russia will take place decisively. "I do not know in what form: with mediators, without them, in an expanded circle, at the presidential level," he said.
"There are things that we can only achieve at the negotiating table. "We want everything to come back," he said before the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, something Russia "does not want," he added, without elaborating.
The results of these talks - the subject of which may change "depending on the time of the meeting" - should be "fair" for Ukraine, the president stressed.
The bilateral discussion with Russia
Referring to a document on security guarantees for Ukraine, he said that it would be signed by "friends and partners of Ukraine, without Russia", while "a bilateral discussion with Russia" would be held at the same time.
He also said that he had made it a necessary condition for the continuation of the talks that the Ukrainian soldiers who had been fortified at the huge Azovstal metallurgical complex in Mariupol, in southeastern Ukraine, not be killed by the Russian army.
The Russian troops "enabled, found a way for these people to come out alive" from Azovstal, he noted. "The most important thing for me is to save as many people and soldiers as possible."
On May 17, Mikhail Pontoliak, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, said talks between Moscow and Kyiv were "on hold", adding that Moscow had shown no "understanding" of the situation.
The next day, the Kremlin accused Ukraine of "complete unwillingness" to negotiate with Russia to end the invasion of Ukraine.
Many meetings have taken place between the negotiators of the two sides, but they have not yielded any tangible results.
The two sides have been talking for over a month
The last meeting between the heads of delegations - Vladimir Medinsky on the Russian side and David Arahamia on Ukraine - is scheduled for April 22, according to Russian news agencies.
After failing to take control of Kiev and its environs, Russian troops are now focusing their efforts on an offensive against eastern Ukraine, where fighting is fierce.
Source: in.gr