Zelenskyy calls for total shutdown of Russian economy to force negotiations

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s statement that the war cannot be ended diplomatically because the situation has reached a “stalemate”. Speaking to journalists in Pryluky, where a Russian missile struck an apartment block on 7 October and killed 22 people, the Ukrainian president called on the United States of America to help Ukraine gain air superiority and increase pressure on Russia.

President of Ukraine in the Chernihiv Oblast

“We have heard about many different moments during the war. Many hopeless situations, difficult corners and so on. We – people, leaders, politicians – drive ourselves into a corner […] Even on the first day of the war, we were not in a corner. Because one person tried to drive an entire nation into a corner [dead end], and the nation rose up and defended its state,” the president said.

He added that getting out of the corner is not difficult and that this requires increasing economic pressure on Russia, giving Ukraine access to Starlink over Russian territory and not negotiating with Russia on future projects.

“You see, you cannot negotiate economic projects for the future with the Russians on the one hand and, on the other, say that we are at a… diplomatic deadlock. We are not at a diplomatic stalemate. Shut down their entire economy. Shut Russia’s mouth. Do not feed them with your sales. Just impose sanctions on their weapons. Open Starlink to us, to Ukraine,” the president stated.

He recalled that the US had already done this when it attacked Iran, when “Israel had complete control of the skies over Iran”.

“So that means that when you need it, it works like that […]. Just control the skies to protect yourself. The US has this capability. For them, it costs nothing to help Ukraine and I said frankly: ‘Give it to us, help us protect our skies and dominate the skies. And then Putin will sit down at the negotiating table. Why? Because he will lose everything. Three, two months – he will lose everything.’ And we are waiting for the Chinese to develop this equivalent and hand it over to the Russians. So where is the truth, where is the honesty? What corner? This is called unwillingness,” Zelenskyy said.

Previously, Rubio said in an interview with Greek newspaper Kathimerini that ending the Russia-Ukraine war through diplomatic negotiations is currently “proving elusive” because the war has reached a “strategic stalemate”. He acknowledged that diplomatic efforts are failing because Russia is demanding full control of the Donbas and Ukraine refuses to accept it.

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