“The goal for us is to restore our borders.” This is what Volodymyr Zelensky says in an interview with the magazine The express, to be published in the Wednesday issue published in collaboration with BFMTV, and now available on the weekly’s website. The Ukrainian president returns to the various aspects of the conflict, after six months of war, and evokes in particular the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
For Volodymyr Zelensky, the strategic situation is thought day by day. Despite everything, he hopes, in the long term, to “regain all the territories” of the country occupied by Russia. Enemy forces, backed by pro-Russian separatists, now occupy part of Donbass in the east of the country.
“We have comprehensive plans for the reoccupation of our territory. […] We will be able to move forward and recover our cities and free our compatriots who are hostages today. As president, my plans correspond to those of our society: to restore the territorial unity of Ukraine,” replied the Ukrainian leader.
Crimea “is our peninsula” says Volodymyr Zelensky
Crimea is part of this territorial integrity for the Ukrainian president: “it is our peninsula”, says Volodymyr Zelenky. For him, the annexation of this region in 2014 is the starting point of the current conflict: “The war began when the first Russian soldier set foot on the Crimean peninsula and occupied it.”
In addition, according to the head of state, the occupation of Ukraine by Russia is impossible. “People are not going to give up and they would have to kill millions of people,” he said. In the interview, he salutes the commitment of the Ukrainians, whom he describes as “all heroes.”
Volodymyr Zelensky has already spoken to the French media in the past. On April 20, he gave an interview to BFMTV. He went back to the situation of the conflict at that time, the origins of the war that he placed in 2014, and the “good relations” that he had with Emmanuel Macron.
Tense situation in Ukraine on the eve of the anniversary of independence
Ukraine celebrates its independence day on Wednesday. A symbolic date that could be a pretext for “particularly disgusting, particularly cruel” acts, Volodymyr Zelensky estimated on Saturday.
This Tuesday, the US embassy in Ukraine invited its compatriots to leave the country, in a message posted on its site. “The State Department has information that Russia is preparing to launch attacks against Ukraine’s civil and government infrastructure in the coming days,” she wrote.
Emmanuel Macron, for his part, has renewed his support for Ukraine and its president in recent days. After discussing the conflict during a speech in Bormes-les-Mimosas on Friday, he participated in the Crimean platform summit. In a video message, he says that Westerners are ready to maintain their support for Kyiv “for the long term.”
Source: BFM TV
