Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that he did not rule out holding a referendum on the future status of war-torn eastern Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
“I do not rule out a referendum on Donbass in general. And here the issue is not the status quo. “Something like this can happen in life,” Zelenski told the 1 + 1 TV channel, adding that the referendum could “concern Donbass, concern Crimea.”
Zelensky also said that US President Joe Biden, in a telephone conversation with him on Thursday, conveyed to him the Russian assurances that Moscow would not cause an escalation in Ukraine.
“The message I received from the US President is that Russia has assured the United States and the world that it does not intend to continue escalating into the territories of our independent state,” said Zelensky, who welcomed the Biden’s involvement in the peace process in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, and he added that he may hold direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin to resolve the issue.
“Thanks to the United States, there could be another area of ​​talks with the Russian Federation,” Zelensky said.
The Ukrainian president also said that the “Normandy figure” in the talks on resolving the Donbas problem could be complemented by contacts between Russia and the United States. He had previously suggested that the United States join the “Normandy scheme”, while until recently Washington refused to participate in the talks on Donbass. But then US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and immediately after Biden said that the US is ready to help resolve the dispute.
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