President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Armed Forces have liberated territory in the country\u2019s south thanks to counteroffensive actions. He shared this information during an interview with the French agency AFP.<\/p>\n
In an interview with AFP he emphasized that he does not wish to disclose unnecessary details, but noted: <\/p>\n
\u201cI won\u2019t go into too many details, but today I can congratulate our army, first of all, all the Defence Forces \u2013 because as of today 300 square kilometres have been liberated\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky<\/p>\n
At the same time, the exact location of the liberation and the operation period will not be named, but the leadership confirmed changes on the front and answered questions regarding Russia\u2019s demands to withdraw from certain territories and hand them over to Russian occupation. According to Zelensky, Ukrainian troops \u201care gaining ground in counterattacks\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s be frank \u2013 the Russians simply want to replace me\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky<\/p>\n
The head of state also answered questions about Russia\u2019s demands to withdraw from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and to hand these territories over to Russian occupation, emphasizing that the Ukrainian Armed Forces continue to defend their positions and prepare for further action.<\/p>\n
In addition, Zelensky touched on the topic of international demands to hold elections \u201cas soon as possible\u201d and trilateral negotiations with the United States and Russia. According to him, Russia insists on rapid decisions to \u201cremove him from power.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cintense and substantive\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Rustem Umerov<\/p>\n
The president confirmed: voting will be possible only under the condition of full security \u2013 a ceasefire and the end of the war against Russia. He stressed that elections in Ukraine are possible only under this condition.<\/p>\n
Tripartite negotiations in Geneva<\/p>\n
On February 17 in Geneva, another round of trilateral negotiations between Ukraine, the United States and Russia began regarding ending the war. Following the first day, the delegations continued work in groups by separate directions, focusing on practical issues and mechanisms for possible solutions.<\/p>\n
On the same day Rustem Umerov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, held separate meetings with representatives of the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, where they discussed the results of the first day of negotiations and coordinated further steps. He said the talks were \u201cintense and substantive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cintense and substantive\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Rustem Umerov<\/p>\n
It was also reported that within the delegation there were both political and military tracks; security parameters and mechanisms for implementing possible solutions were discussed. After the first day\u2019s results in Geneva, the next round of negotiations and an expected meeting between the sides in the near future were announced.<\/p>\n
Head of the Russian delegation Vladimir Medinsky called the next round \u201cdifficult but businesslike.\u201d According to Zelensky, the sides demonstrated \u201cconstructiveness\u201d regarding monitoring the ceasefire, and the United States would definitely participate in this process.<\/p>\n
\u201cdifficult, but businesslike\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Vladimir Medinsky<\/p>\n
\u201cconstructiveness\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky<\/p>\n
After the round ended, Kyrylo Budanov, head of the President\u2019s Office and a member of the Ukrainian delegation, noted that a new meeting and continuation of dialogue with partners on the trilateral negotiations track are expected in the near future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Armed Forces have liberated territory in the country\u2019s south thanks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[65,4095,1202,4126,5467,10483,10484,10485,10482],"class_list":{"0":"post-14519","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-geneva","8":"tag-geneva","9":"tag-geneva-negotiations","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","12":"tag-trilateral-talks","13":"tag-ukraine-defense-forces","14":"tag-ukraine-southern-liberation","15":"tag-zelensky-statement","16":"tag-zelensky-statement-ukraine-southern-liberation-geneva-negotiations-russia-ukraine-war-trilateral-talks-ukraine-defense-forces"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}