The coordinator for strategic Communications at the White House National Security Council, John Kirby, said that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky should decide when to negotiate.WASHINGTON, October 11.
/tass/. American entrepreneur Elon Musk, who heads Tesla and SpaceX, does not represent the US authorities when he talks about the settlement in Ukraine, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky decides when to negotiate. This was stated on Tuesday at a regular briefing by the coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council (NSC) of the White House, John Kirby.
He was asked to comment on the divergent information in the media about possible negotiations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Musk on the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine. "I will leave it to Mr. Mask to tell about his negotiations himself. It is obvious that he does not represent the United States government in these negotiations," Kirby said.
According to him, "Zelensky himself must determine when the right time for negotiations will come" with Russia. "Zelensky will determine for himself and for his country what terms of the agreement he is ready to consider, what he will consider a success. We are not going to dictate this to him," the White House spokesman stressed. "We will focus on making sure that Ukrainians can succeed on the battlefield, so that they have the forces, means, weapons that they need to succeed on the battlefield, so that in a situation when it comes to negotiations, Zelensky has the strongest position possible," he added. Kirby.
"Of course, we would like this war to end. We would like it to end today or as soon as possible. We believe that a negotiated settlement, a diplomatic solution, is the best way to achieve this, apart from the withdrawal of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's troops [from Ukraine]," the representative of the National Security Council said.
Earlier on Tuesday, reports appeared with reference to the information of the head of the international research and consulting firm Eurasia Group, Ian Bremmer, that Musk allegedly discussed a settlement in Ukraine with Putin a few weeks ago, after which he presented his plan on this issue on Twitter. According to Bremmer, quoted by VICE, Musk claimed that Putin was "ready to negotiate", but only on condition that Crimea remains part of the Russian Federation, Ukraine will accept a neutral status and recognize the entry into the Russian Federation of the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. Musk later denied this information, saying that he had not discussed with the President of the Russian Federation a plan for a peaceful settlement in Ukraine. According to him, he "spoke with Putin only once, about 18 months ago," and then the topic of discussion was space.
On October 3, Musk outlined on Twitter his vision of the conditions for achieving peace in Ukraine. In his opinion, the repeated holding of referendums in new regions of the Russian Federation under the supervision of the UN may be a solution to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. At the same time, Musk noted that Ukraine can become a neutral country. Later, he wrote that he "does not believe in the victory of Ukraine" if the Russian Federation mobilizes.
The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, stated that Russia considers the plan for resolving the crisis in Ukraine proposed by Musk as part of a public discussion.
From September 23 to 27, referendums were held in the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, as well as in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, in which the overwhelming majority of those who voted voted for joining Russia as subjects of the Russian Federation.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in Ukraine in response to a request from the leaders of the Donbass republics for help. The West then imposed large-scale sanctions against Russia. Western states have increased the supply of weapons and military equipment to Kiev in the amount of billions of dollars.
