KYIV. July 18 (Interfax) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he expected that the leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine could meet following the next meeting of their foreign policy advisors in the Normandy format.
"There is the Normandy format, which hasn't worked for two years. Here is what we have done. There was the first meeting between our representatives on July 12, and we agreed that there is going to be another meeting, a more substantive one, and then the four leaders will try to meet after that. I think, by doing this, we will advance a diplomatic solution to this issue," Zelensky said in an interview shown by a number of Ukrainian TV channels on Wednesday.
He also explained motives that prompted him to call Russian President Vladimir Putin recently, even though he said Kyiv's Western partners did not approve of such direct contacts.
"You know what the problem is and why it is so complicated [the ending of the war in Donbas]? Because everyone says: God forbid, if there are direct negotiations with Russia, the sanctions would be lifted. To be honest, I don't understand this model. I was sure that the sanctions have been imposed not because of my conversation with the president of the Russian Federation, but the sanctions have been imposed because they took Crimea away from us and are supporting the temporarily occupied territories," Zelensky said.
"All of, so to speak, partners of Ukraine are even against my call to Putin. I decided to call Putin because this is primarily an issue of Ukraine, an issue of our citizens. Therefore, we should thank our Western partners, we should thank everyone for support, but we should also have our own opinion," he said.
Zelensky said a lot of people discouraged him from calling the Russian president. "But I talked about our people. And why be scared and why fear something if the truth is on your side?" he said.
Zelensky said he also believed that those who want to end the war will definitely end it. "I am sure that the former administration didn't want that. I don't know all reasons and all motives why they didn't want that and why they obstructed that. Moreover, I know from various sources that they spoke to the president of the Russian Federation a lot of times," he said.
It had been reported earlier that the Russian and Ukrainian presidents had a telephone conversation on July 11 to discuss the situation in Donbas and an exchange of prisoners.