A Ukrainian negotiator said, on Saturday, that Russia has begun to “realize the true cost of the war” in confronting the Ukrainian resistance, stressing that negotiations between the two countries’ delegations have begun to become “constructive.”
In an interview in Lviv, western Ukraine, with the Canadian newspaper “The Globe and Mail”, the adviser to the Ukrainian president, Mykhailo Podolak, said that he had begun to perceive a shift in the Russian position in light of the Ukrainian resistance and international sanctions.
“At the beginning of the war they (the Russians) insisted on complete domination. They did not expect such strong resistance from Ukraine,” Podolak said.
“They are just beginning to realize the true cost of the war. We are now starting to have constructive negotiations,” added the official, who took part in the first two rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine on the Belarus border.
The Ukrainian delegation said that a third round of talks is scheduled for Monday.
The Ukrainian president’s adviser stressed that the Russians “lost a very large number of equipment and personnel. Sanctions that we have not seen before are destroying their economy. Their country has become a rogue on the international stage and their propaganda is not working.”
Podolak reiterated NATO’s call for the establishment of a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
While stressing that the negotiating parties agreed not to discuss the details of the talks, Podolak noted that Ukraine’s goals remain an immediate ceasefire, security guarantees that Ukraine will not be attacked once more, and “significant” compensation for loss of life and damage to Ukrainian cities.
