Putin seeks to create chaos, and Ukraine must protect its army, language, faith, and paths to the EU and NATO — Poroshenko on CNN
The fifth president and current People’s Deputy Petro Poroshenko stated on CNN that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin does not plan to limit himself to the territory of Donbas.
Poroshenko is convinced that Russia is deliberately provoking chaos inside Ukraine with this demand. He also recalled that no treaties or guarantees from Russia have been respected, so Ukraine must defend its democracy, its army, language, faith, and path to the EU and NATO.
“We must defend not only Ukrainian land or Ukrainian borders within the borders of 1991. We must defend Ukraine as a free and democratic country. We must defend our Armed Forces, which protect peace and security in Europe. We must defend our language, our national identity and our faith, because Putin is attacking them. And in this situation, we must keep the doors to NATO and the European Union open, not succumbing to Putin’s blackmail,” Poroshenko believes.
He noted that now the issues of Crimea or NATO membership should not be on the agenda: “today the most important part of the discussion is a ceasefire. I have such experience in 2014-2015, when we discussed the Minsk agreements, it is the clearest signal on how to stop the war. A ceasefire can be achieved immediately, in a very short period of time. A ceasefire means stopping the killing of innocent Ukrainian civilians. A ceasefire means stopping wasting time. A ceasefire is an extremely important step for starting a peace process. And Putin wants to talk “blah blah blah” about the peace process, because that way he can continue the war without restrictions. Putin feeds on war. It is very difficult to negotiate peace when missiles are flying at your head every hour. And this night we had people killed and injured in Kharkiv, in Odessa. This is not the position that contributes to ensuring a ceasefire,” Poroshenko explained.
Answering questions about different versions of the terms of the so-called “peace agreement,” Poroshenko said: “Firstly, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. I just want to remind you that during my term, the so-called Crimean Declaration was issued. It was issued by the United States State Department on behalf of President Trump. There is a signature there that the United States will never recognize occupied Crimea as Russian territory. Because this creates an absolutely dangerous precedent,” Poroshenko reminded.
“We will never give up Crimea. We will never give up NATO. This is clearly spelled out in our Constitution, this is important. So this is not the opinion of President Zelensky or President Poroshenko. The Ukrainian people will never agree to a situation with an exchange of territories, this also applies to Crimea. And this means that Putin, and he insists on this, wants to bring chaos to our country, because he does not need the territory of Donbas, he needs all of Ukraine. The only way to get all of Ukraine is chaos, and this will help him bring a pro-Russian government to power, which is impossible,” the opposition leader is convinced.
Commenting on the question of possible security guarantees for Ukraine, Poroshenko said: “From all my experience, please do not trust Putin. Secondly, do not be afraid of Putin. And thirdly, as President of Ukraine I had security guarantees in the form of the Budapest Memorandum. It does not work. After Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, attacked us, it destroyed the entire post-war security system. The only guarantee that exists in this world is NATO membership. But while we wait for NATO to open its doors, we will accept Finnish-style security guarantees. This would be Article 5 before we become a member of the Alliance. It is absolutely effective. And we will discuss this after the ceasefire, when we prepare a peace agreement. This is the only way we can stop the war, save the world, save the peace. Putin knows this, he simply does not want to stop the war. Therefore, if Putin does not accept these conditions, there must be Trump’s “Plan B”: more weapons, more money, “Confiscation of Russian assets, rejection of Putin’s blackmail regarding membership in NATO and the EU, and making it impossible for him to finance the war,” Petro Poroshenko emphasized.
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