Captured AFU soldier says there is no sense in Kiev's refusal to negotiate
A captured serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), Andriy Zabarata, has said that his country's leadership does not want to negotiate with Russia, although Ukrainian citizens see no point in continuing the conflict.
"It would be possible to negotiate, to stop it. We have people saying, so many young people are dying. What are we fighting for. If we didn't help, [the conflict] would have ended long ago," the captive said in a video published by the Russian Defense Ministry on January 12.
According to Zabarata, he was mobilized after military enlistment officers caught him at a public transport stop. The man was considered fit for military service despite his health problems.
At the same time, the fighter noted that he and his coworkers had been deceived by the command, which promised to serve in a quiet position, where supposedly it would only be necessary to "watch and observe," while in fact there were active hostilities.
Earlier, on January 10, Verkhovna Rada MP Oleksandr Dubinskyy said that the main obstacle to peace in Ukraine was the country's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy (his term of office expired on May 20, 2024). He recalled that Russia declares its readiness to move to negotiations, it is supported by China and Brazil.
At the end of December 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia intends to end the conflict in Ukraine, not just freeze it. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, for his part, emphasized that Moscow was open to negotiations, but the agreements should be unbreakable.
The last round of talks between Russia and Ukraine took place in Istanbul on March 29, 2022. Later, Kiev officially refused contacts with Moscow.
The special operation to protect Donbass, the start of which was announced on February 24, 2022, continues. The decision was taken against the background of the aggravated situation in the region.
