ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - It is “impossible” to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine through diplomatic efforts, a Ukrainian lawmaker told Rudaw on Monday, adding that they are pessimistic about reaching any agreement with Moscow.
Russia launched a military operation against Ukraine late last month, and controls several areas of the country so far. Millions of Ukrainians have fled to the eastern province of Lviv and abroad. Despite calls from the international community, Moscow seems determined to continue the offensive.
“Russia only understands the language of strength, and that is the only way they can actually surrender. Expecting any diplomatic solution … is just impossible … We do not believe a single word the Russians are saying, and we just want them out of our country,” Inna Sovsun, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, told Rudaw’s Nalin Hassan during a WhatsApp video call from the capital city of Kyiv.
There have been three rounds of talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Belarus but they have yielded little to stop the war. The delegations reached an agreement to establish “humanitarian corridors” but footage of Russian forces targeting and killing civilians as they attempted to flee besieged areas has circulated.
“To be honest, we are very pessimistic about the talks because there is, frankly speaking, very little room for negotiations because the situation basically looks like this: Russia or Putin wants all of us dead and Ukraine destroyed, and we want to stay alive,” added Sovsun who is originally from Kharkiv city where fighting has been intense since the start of the invasion.
Russia said on Monday that it would provide corridors to help Ukrainians to flee to the country or its ally Belarus but a spokesperson for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the offer as “completely immoral.”
"They are citizens of Ukraine, they should have the right to evacuate to the territory of Ukraine," the spokesperson told Reuters.
The MP continued, explaining that Russia’s violation of the agreement to establish “humanitarian corridors” has disappointed Ukraine. “I am afraid we have to use the military solution and should fight our way out of this. We will have to defeat them militarily because we do not trust a single word from Putin’s mouth. It is naive, and we do not want to be naive anymore,” Sovsun said.
Western countries have until now refused to become directly involved in the Ukraine-Russia war to avoid the further escalation of the conflict. Ukrainians, who have been left alone in the battlefield, have requested weapons and asked for a no-fly zone. Kyiv’s Western allies have provided weapons but refused the support required to impose a no-fly zone.
The MP said that they feel “betrayed” by the West.
“We do indeed feel betrayed by the West because in the early nineties we had a nuclear weapon. Ukraine was a country that was in possession of a nuclear weapon - which we had from the Soviet times. We gave it up voluntarily in exchange for insurance and our security from the West.
The United States [and] the United Kingdom promised us that they would give us security insurances in case someone attacked us. Now, we are under severe attack from a terrible enemy, an inhumane evil. We are not getting enough support,” she said.
She noted that they have received weapons from the US, UK, and EU countries, adding that they have also bought anti-tank missiles from Turkey which enjoys good relations with Ukraine and Russia.
Disappointed that they may not be granted a no-fly zone, the MP said they hope they can receive fighter jets from Poland.
“Now, we are coordinating with the United States, with the United Kingdom and with the European Union overall, asking them to provide us with more support. In terms of direct involvement, currently the suggested deal is that we should get the fighter jets from Poland, and the United States will give other fighter jets to Poland instead. So, that is the deal that the Secretary of State [Antony] Blinken has announced. We hope that it will go through.”
Zelensky slammed NATO’s rejection of the no-fly zone on Saturday, saying the West’s refusal to intervene in the conflict has given Russia “a green light” to continue the invasion.
“All the people who will die starting from this day will also die because of you. Because of your weakness, because of your disunity,” he said in a fiery speech, reported the BBC.
Regarding the latest developments on the ground, the MP said “The situation is extremely tense of course.”
“In Kyiv, it is actually quieter than in many other cities. We hear air raids a lot from time to time. The air defence system seems to be working quite well to hit the missiles targeting the city. But the situation around the city is getting much more tense. We are seeing Russian troops trying to get closer to the city. They are facing major resistance from the Ukrainian army, but the problem is they are not letting civilians out of their houses,” she said.
“So, the Russians are basically using civilians, stuck in those smaller towns around Kyiv, as hostages so that the Ukrainian army is unable to use its full force against them - afraid of hitting the civilians while the Russians themselves are killing civilians every day,” Sovsun concluded.
