If Russia changes goals of special operation, Ukraine may conduct negotiations

Negotiations with Russia are possible if Moscow changes the goals of the special operation, the head of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry Oleksiy Reznikov said.

According to Reznikov, Ukraine can live peacefully and "normally in a good-neighbourly fashion with all its neighbours." However, Russia should change its approach to resolving the conflict, he said.

"You first identify the interest of the Russians, has it changed for them? If it has changed, then the so-called ZOPA — zone of possible agreement — becomes clear, and if not, then stay in line, we will figure it out somehow without you," said Reznikov.

According to Reznikov, Russia's goals of the special military operation include "denazification", "demilitarization" and "denatoization". In his opinion, the essence of these goals is to wipe the Ukrainian nation off the face of the earth, because allegedly, from Russia's point of view, the Ukrainian nation does not exist.

China and other states that propose their peace plans are competing for mediator's role, but there is one nuance in all of their actions: they all still want to be mediators on the side of Russia, the Ukrainian Defence Minister said.

As long as such states have no "real independent mediation” and impartiality, then Kyiv will wait and continue fighting for victory.

Crimea Governor expects Russia to change special operation goals

The head of the Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said that the Russian authorities should "designate the goals one way or another, that is, definitively."

"The situation is changing daily, I think that the goals will be adjusted in one way or another, I personally have no doubt about it," Aksyonov said.

The head of Crimea expressed confidence that it would be difficult for Russia to come to an agreement with Ukraine if a significant part of Ukraine does not go through "demilitarization” and gets quickly accepted into NATO and the EU.

Russia has failed to achieve several of its original goals of the military operation, including issues of Ukraine's neutral status, its "denazification”, "demilitarization,” and the protection of the population of Donbass, United Russia State Duma deputy Konstantin Zatulin said in early June. The initially conceived plan was unrealistic, Zatulin said. One needs to move on to a new one and proceed.