Resolving territorial disputes with Russia through diplomacy is impossible — diplomat

He expressed this opinion in an interview with Antin Borkovskyi, host of the Studio West program on Espreso TV.

“For Putin, the current situation, which can be called ‘the Trump game,’ is an attempt to use Trump to put pressure on Ukraine. That is the storyline. If we look at the information strategy, that is exactly how it is being implemented—playing along with Donald Trump while actually manipulating parallel information narratives. We understand perfectly well that Putin’s main goal is the destruction of the Ukrainian state and the Ukrainian nation. Moscow’s position is that Ukraine and Ukrainians should not exist. We understand Putin’s goal and his instrument—using Donald Trump,” Bezsmertnyi commented.

According to him, Ukraine and its global partners have clearly demonstrated through a vote in the UN General Assembly that they fundamentally do not recognize Russia’s seizure of Ukrainian territory. Moreover, to this day, only four or five countries have recognized Crimea as part of the Russian Federation. “It is clear that neither today, nor tomorrow, nor the day after, neither the U.S. nor anyone else, under any circumstances, will recognize the occupied Ukrainian lands as Russian territory,” he stated.

“Now let’s consider the next developments: Rubio and Trump are talking about compromises based on the current situation. But what compromises? Neither Trump nor Rubio, nor we, can truly imagine them. And I will say honestly, I do not even allow myself to consider them, because I understand perfectly well what could be behind them. But no territorial changes will happen on the world map in this situation.

Why do Putin and his associates focus on the situation on the ground? Because they are exercising what is called ‘effective control’ under international law. This means they acknowledge their responsibility for all the problems in these territories—for all the tragedies, misfortunes, and social issues. But this does not mean that the world recognizes their sovereignty over these territories. The world does not recognize it,” the diplomat emphasized.

Regarding the resolution of territorial disputes through diplomacy, Bezsmertnyi, who has been engaged in negotiations with Russia for a long time, stated that resolving this issue diplomatically with Russia is impossible.

“In reality, the approach must be ‘peace through strength’—either reclaiming the territory by force or reaching a level of strength where we can dictate terms at the negotiation table. But Washington’s ‘Donnie’ says: ‘No, stop the fighting, sit down at the table.’ Macron responds with ‘Minsk-3.’ This leads to a deadlock in the situation,” the politician noted.

• On March 6, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the war in Ukraine is a ‘proxy war’ between two nuclear powers—Russia and the United States.