“If there are no substantial negotiations before the summer, then further very dangerous processes threatening the very existence of Ukraine may be triggered,” the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper has quoted Budanov as saying, citing its source among participants in a closed-door meeting in the Verkhovna Rada.
The daily’s source also said that Budanov dropped this remark “with a cold smile” on his face, which “made everyone look at each other and fall silent.”
In early January, US President Donald Trump admitted that the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine might take more than 24 hours, contrary to what he stated during the election campaign. He expressed his wish to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the Ukrainian crisis much earlier than six months after his inauguration. Keith Kellogg, the special envoy for Ukraine in the Trump administration, said that he would like to meet a 100-day deadline.
Putin earlier mentioned conditions for resolving the conflict, which included the withdrawal of Ukrainian armed forces from Donbass and Novorossiya, Kiev’s pledge not to join NATO, the lifting of all Western sanctions on Moscow and Ukraine’s non-aligned and nuclear-free status.
Russia has consistently stated its readiness for peace talks and has accused Kiev of avoiding seeking a diplomatic resolution to the ongoing conflict.
Earlier this week, Putin told Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin that any negotiations between Moscow and Kiev would be “illegitimate” as long as the ban stays in place. Any results of such talks could easily be made null and void, the Russian president warned, adding that, although some preliminary contacts could be made right now, any “serious” steps are not possible until the situation changes.
Putin also called on Kiev’s Western backers to exert pressure on Ukraine and make it lift the prohibition on talks. The Russian president said he believed Kiev was in no rush to lift the ban since it was satisfied with the current situation that allowed it to receive “hundreds of billions [of dollars] from its sponsors” that it can “chomp down on.”