An interview with Dmytro Kuleba

I wanted to start with the negotiations, the settlement negotiations. Should we take them remotely seriously? Do you think the Russians are taking these at all seriously? Do they have a mandate from Putin, or is this just buying time? It’s all at the same time, because the dynamics in negotiations depend on the mindset in Moscow and how they assess the situation on the ground. Those people who take part in these negotiations from the Russian side, they have a mandate to do so. But the complexity of the issues they are discussing, and the list of demands that they put forward is not something that they can decide on their own at the negotiating table. That’s also clear. The most difficult issues are at the very core of these talks. And in Russia, only one man has the mandate to decide on them. It is President Putin. This is why we stated openly that while we will engage with the Russian delegation at this level, we are interested in organising a meeting between President Putin and [President] Zelensky because these are the only real talks where decisions can be made.