"Russia provided false information about the territories it occupied during the negotiations in Abu Dhabi" — Zelenskyy
The President of Ukraine said that the Russian delegation has claimed that the areas of Donbass remaining under Kyiv's control are also occupied.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the Russian delegation at the negotiations in Abu Dhabi exaggerated the area of the occupied territories. According to him, Russian representatives claimed that the part of Donbas remaining under Ukrainian control is also occupied. Zelenskyy stated this while answering journalists' questions in Denmark, as reported.
“The Russians said that they had already occupied half of Donbas, which is in fact still under our control. Military officers and representatives of Russian intelligence spoke seriously about this,” said the Ukrainian president.
According to him, the Ukrainian delegation stated in response that it has the ability to provide video recordings, photographs and other evidence confirming that these territories are not occupied by Russia.
Zelenskyy stressed that this situation shows that Russian President Vladimir Putin “lives in a different reality.” In his opinion, Putin may tell US representatives that another one or two months are needed to fully occupy the eastern part of Ukraine.
At the end of the two-day Abu Dhabi negotiations, US President's special envoy Jared Kushner said that the territorial issue was the most difficult topic in the dialogue between Russia and Ukraine.
According to “RBK-Ukraina,” the Russian delegation also put forward its demands on security guarantees at the negotiations. Among them are demands to renounce NATO's further expansion, reduce the military presence of allied states in countries that joined the alliance after 1997, and limit military cooperation with post-Soviet states that are not NATO members, including Ukraine.
