Ukraine responds to Putin's proposal for a government in Kiev without Zelensky

The reporter and journalist María Senovilla, contributor to Atalayar, analysed Kiev's reaction to the Russian proposal for a government without Zelensky on the Onda Madrid programme ‘De cara al mundo’. 

She also mentioned the contacts that the United States is resuming separately with Russia and Ukraine. 

Además, mencionó los contactos que está reanudando Estados Unidos por separado con Rusia y Ucrania.

Has there been any reaction in Kiev to Putin's proposal for a government in Ukraine without Zelensky that can organise elections? 

Putin's demands to end the war are increasingly absurd, as were the excuses he made three years ago for invading Ukraine. But Ukrainians are now immune to such scares. Support for Zelensky rose sharply when Trump said he was a comic actor with no legitimacy and accused Ukraine of starting its own war. And after the embarrassing meeting they had at the White House, public support for the current Ukrainian president skyrocketed.  

That feeling has not changed and will not change now because of Putin's words. The consensus here is that when the war is over, the Ukrainians themselves will decide who they want to govern them, but that for the moment they have to unite around Zelensky to be stronger. And it is a message that is being repeated even by the political opposition. So it is obvious that they are going to close ranks around Zelensky and that if Putin asks for his head it will be one more reason to make this support visible.  

Ukrainians are like that. They may have those internal differences, popular support for Zelensky may have fallen as is normal over these three years of war, but when it is an external leader who attacks their president they close ranks around him. Furthermore, it must be taken into account that, in this part of Europe, in the countries of the former Soviet orbit, citizens are familiar with the puppet presidents, who are of course pro-Russian, that the Kremlin is so fond of. And that is not the future Ukraine wants after already enduring more than three years of war.  

Zelensky, who was at the summit of leaders convened by Emmanuel Macron in Paris, called for the presence of European troops in Ukraine, one of the guarantees to ensure that there is no new aggression on the part of Russia. However, the division among Europeans regarding this type of decision continues. 

I want to continue believing that we are the guarantors of the only solution for Ukraine. A solution that would not involve dividing the country up like the United States and Russia are doing right now. We must continue to be optimistic. 

Zelensky was one of the protagonists of the Paris summit, but so was the United States, even though it was not present. The Ukrainian president warned precisely of the dangers of a division between the United States and Europe, but also of a division between the different European countries that until now have unanimously supported Kiev, with the exception of Hungary, which we all know is the black sheep among the 28. 

Even so, despite the differences you mention, it should also be noted that progress was made by appointing the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer, as Europe's representatives for the peace negotiations. Zelensky said that Ukraine's position in this regard is very clear, and that Europe must literally be at the negotiating table. Where consensus was not reached is on the active role that European countries are going to have within Ukraine to guarantee peace. This is because France and the United Kingdom proposed sending contingents with soldiers, as a peacekeeping force, but Spain, Italy and Croatia do not want that option. 

They say that it would be very difficult to justify to their citizens that troops are suddenly being sent to a war like the one in Ukraine. But the truth is that there are already deterrence operations specifically against Russia, and there are Spanish soldiers and soldiers from other NATO countries in countries such as the Baltic Republics or Poland. And although it seems that it is taking time to take the step of deploying them in Ukraine, it could be that in the future there will be a consensus for a European contingent of these forces. I'm not saying that they are going to come here to the trenches to eat the mud, but we already have precedents of operations of dissuasion towards Russia that have been working for years and that have not given any trouble to the participating countries. And, on the other hand, what the European leaders did agree on, and this is important, is that it is not the moment to lift the sanctions on Russia.  

The United States is resuming separate contacts with Russia and Ukraine in Saudi Arabia. What is expected? Because Putin insists that the sanctions on Moscow be lifted.

Putin insists on the lifting of sanctions and has also done so in the small print of the agreement. In the meetings held separately on Tuesday in Riyadh, on the one hand, the Ukrainian delegation with the United States and, on the other hand, the Russian delegation with Donald Trump's representatives, it was announced with great fanfare that Russia was offering in very good faith a ceasefire agreement affecting the Black Sea for 30 days. 

Of course, what the US representatives did not announce with great fanfare was the small print that came with this possible agreement, which we will see, but it looks like it is not going to happen. What Russia is trying to do is to stop the fighting in the Black Sea for 30 days and in exchange have the sanctions lifted on one of its banks that operates with the SWIFT banking system, which is what allows international transactions, and to the fertiliser companies that have already been shown to form part of holdings that include companies from the arms industry or that directly own factories that produce arms. 

It is asking for the sanctions on its economic operations and arms production to be lifted, something that Europe rejects. And what Europe says is relevant in this sense, because the SWIFT banking system belongs to Europe, it has to be approved by Switzerland and the rest of the European banking network. So everything seems to indicate that these sanctions on Russia will not be lifted for the time being. 

As for the ceasefire on the energy infrastructure that was announced on 18 March, but which was also discussed a little at the Riyadh summit this week, it is not being complied with. Just yesterday Russia bombed power stations, the city of Poltava, which is between Kiev and Kharkiv, was left in the dark and the Kremlin also bombed railway infrastructure. And as I said at the beginning, no one in Ukraine has been surprised by this violation of the agreement. 

People tell you, ironically of course, that we expected nothing less. That is somewhat the position with these attempts at partial ceasefire agreements which, in the case of the energy infrastructures, which was announced on 18 March, has not even been formally signed and is already being breached. 

On the other hand, it should be noted that an agreement in the Black Sea would benefit Russia as much as Ukraine, because Moscow also uses Black Sea ports for export, and at the moment Ukraine and its maritime drones have pushed back the Russian navy, leaving those Russian cargo ships that leave ports with goods for other parts of the world unprotected. So it is an agreement tailored to Russia, for and by Russia, and for the moment Ukraine has said no.