KYIV. Nov 8 (Interfax) - The disengagement sites in Donbas should not be called "a gray area," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
"Our troops are ready, our military has done a good job, the withdrawal [of forces and troops] was 100% safe; we moved to prepared, equipped positions. There is no 'gray area.' Please forget [this term], I want everyone to forget [it]. Let's not call it that term, [there's] no 'gray area' there. It's safe there, our people are there. The military has withdrawn, but there are police officers and Security Service officers there," he said while driving a Tesla car in a video interview titled "Frankly with the President." The video was posted by the Office of the President on social media on Thursday.
Disengagement has taken place in the village of Stanytsia Luhanska, the town of Zolote, i.e., in Katerynivka, "because there are five parts of Zolote. We control four of them as the Ukrainian army, the Ukrainian government, and there are militants in Zolote-5"," he said. Disengagement remains to be conducted in Petrivske, he said.
"In Stanytsia Luhanska, we've built a temporary pedestrian bridge, and today concrete is already being poured and a permanent bridge will be built in Stanytsia Luhanska, there is a checkpoint, there is light, it's Switzerland there. After the troops were pulled out from Katerynivka, nothing happened there. There is no shooting there and in Stanytsia Luhanska; and statistics show that where troops are withdrawn there is a ceasefire. As for Petrivske, there is a field there, and there are no other problems with disengagement, the only problem is the timing," he said.
The interpretation of the visit by Aleksey Zhuravlyov, a Russian State Duma deputy and leader of the party Rodina, to "the temporarily occupied Zolote-5" saying that he visited "the Zolote controlled by the Ukrainian military" is a fake, Zelensky said.
"Fakes, manipulation, infowar. It used to be a war waged by the Russian media, now it's also a war inside our country. Despite the fact that we've met with our media several times, it seems to me that some of them are not aware of what they have been doing. As there is no capitulation, we can't solve the problem of war, stop the war without talking to people, at least within the Normandy process," he said.