Zelensky announced that any compromise in the negotiations with Russia will be put to a referendum

Any “compromise” in negotiations with Russia to end the conflict will be put to a referendum in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with a Ukrainian regional public media outlet on Monday.

“I explained it to all the negotiating groups: when they talk about all those changes [that would be included in a possible agreement, ndlr], which may be historic..., we will reach a referendum,” a Ukrainian information portal told Suspiln.

“The people will have to speak out on some forms of compromise. And [the commitments] will emerge from our talks” with Russia, he added.

Zelensky referred to the key issue of NATO, an organization to which his country will not be able to join, as he recently acknowledged.

“We already understood them. We are not accepted [in NATO], because they [their Member States] are afraid of Russia. It's all. And we need to calm down and say, 'Okay, [other security assurances will be required] '”, he stressed.

“There are NATO countries that want to be guarantors of security [of Ukraine] [...], that are willing to do everything that the Alliance should do if we were members. And I think it's a normal compromise,” Zelensky added.

Russia claims that it wants the guarantee that Ukraine will never enter NATO, an organization created to protect Europe from the threat of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the Cold War and that later spread, with the addition of new members, to Russia's gates.

On the other hand, Zelensky said that his country cannot fulfill Russia's ultimatum of surrendering the strategic city of Mariupol because to do so Russian forces would have to destroy the Ukrainian people.

“Ukraine will not be able to fulfill the ultimatum. We won't be able to do it How can this be done? They would have to eliminate us all and then their ultimatum will be fulfilled automatically,” Zelensky said in an interview with European media, an excerpt from which was published by the Ukrainian digital “Obschestvennoye”, Ukrinform reported.

The president of Ukraine said: “For example, give us Kharkov, give us Mariupol, give us Kiev. Neither the inhabitants of Mariupol nor the people of Kiev can do this.”

He added that even in cities already occupied by the Russians, such as Melitopol or Berdyansk, “when they (Russian troops) enter, people don't give up. (The Russians) raise the flag, people lower it. They killed a man, yes, people hid, but at night they went out and removed the flag again. What do they want? Destroy us all? We can fulfill the ultimatum only when we are gone,” emphasized the head of the Ukrainian state.

The port city of Mariupol, in southeastern Ukraine, focuses the attention of the war with Russia, on a siege that has been going on for days and which has the prospect of dragging on.

Some 400,000 people have been trapped in Mariupol for more than two weeks amid intense shelling that has cut off central electricity, heating and water supplies, according to local sources.

Russia called on Ukrainian forces this Sunday to surrender and abandon Mariupol “unarmed”, something Kiev called “delirium.”

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said today that Mariupol's resistance, heavily bombed by the Russians days ago, is “saving” other cities, such as Dnipro, Kiev and Odessa, from the escalation of an offensive against them.

(With information from EFE)

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