The head of the Other Ukraine movement, the former leader of the Opposition Platform — For Life party banned in Ukraine, Viktor Medvedchuk, in a special interview with TASS, spoke about the prospects for negotiations on Ukraine, the ideas of European countries to annex Ukrainian lands, Donald Trump's desire to hit the jackpot, and also recalled Russia's historical rights.
— Do you think the negotiations on Ukraine will take place? Can peace finally come to the territory where fighting has been going on since 2014? Under what conditions is it possible?
— Peace and negotiations are different concepts. In 2022, there were negotiations in Belarus and Istanbul, but they did not end in peace, on the contrary, the escalation of hostilities resumed after them.
Today, the team of the newly elected US president says that achieving peace in the Ukrainian conflict is its top priority, but do they understand the essence of what is happening and the main reasons that led to the fighting?
During the Istanbul talks, as a gesture of goodwill Russia withdrew troops from Kiev, but in response, Zelensky, at the dictation of the West, began to escalate the conflict. What can you negotiate with them after that? The Zelensky regime does not want to be held responsible for its actions and shows in every possible way that it is not going to continue to do anything.
The situation is negated by the fact that Zelensky has been illegitimate since May 21, 2024, so his signature on the document is worthless. After the expiration of his term of office, Zelensky cannot exercise presidential powers, including issuing decrees and orders that are binding on the territory of Ukraine (part 3 of Article 106 of the Constitution of Ukraine), as well as revoking them. The legitimate cancellation of the decision to ban negotiations with the Russian Federation, which he banned by his decree, is currently impossible.
In addition, the only body that has the right to revoke the decree in the absence of a legitimate president is the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. However, due to the expiration of the term of office of individual judges, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine has lost its quorum for holding meetings and has been unable to make any decisions since January 27, 2025. Zelensky has destroyed almost all the legitimate government in the country, all its branches, and driven it into a complete impasse of hopelessness. Therefore, a negotiation process may take place, but the signing of peace agreements is currently being ruled out.
The main thing remains the conditions under which peace is possible. This is a top priority issue. Russia will proceed from the interests of national security, and for this, guarantees of such security must be achieved. It is necessary to proceed from this and only from this when reaching agreements. In a telephone conversation with Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin emphasized that the root causes of the conflict must be eliminated. This means that the tasks of eliminating the Nazi regime in Ukraine, controlled by Zelensky, must be completed, the Nazi ideology must be completely uprooted, and those people who defend and try to preserve this theory and practice must be eliminated. It is necessary to disarm the Nazi combat troops, eliminate the weapons and equipment supplied by the collective West to fight Russia. How can this be achieved? I do not know of any other way than the one in which the Russian Armed Forces must control the territories under the Kiev regime for this. Anything else, in my opinion, will not be able to ensure and guarantee the security interests of the Russian Federation. Does Trump and his team understand this? Unlikely. I want to believe that this can happen, but I can't be sure.
— The West is forcing Kiev to hold presidential elections before the end of 2025. Do you think they will pass? Could you tell us the names of those who have a real chance of coming to power? Are these just the figures that will be imposed on Ukrainians?
— It is obvious that Trump needs to replace Zelensky in order to make progress in the negotiations, and the simplest thing is to force him to leave. Such a maneuver will allow the collective West to save face and create a comfortable negotiating position, primarily for the United States. But the problem is that Zelensky and his pack are not going anywhere, they are desperately clinging to power and coming up with a lot of excuses to avoid elections.
Zelensky realizes that even his most pro-Western successor, and there are no others left in Ukraine today, will be obliged to put him in the dock, so an active cleansing of the political field continues in Ukraine. Zelensky's team destroys not only politicians, activists and dissidents, but also branches of government. This means that there will be not only those who can potentially lead the government in the country, but also the country itself, as well as the government itself. There will be nothing and no one to lead, Zelensky, in a fit of his lust for power, has left no stone unturned from the Ukrainian statehood. Today he is in a state of complete agony.
Naturally, it is possible that a farce with elections in Ukraine is possible in principle, but it will have an unpredictable end and will not bring anything good to the Ukrainian people. It will be a game of political thimbles, where voters are guaranteed to be deceived, where winnings are not provided in principle, and everything will be decided by underhanded games. But then this farce will not be able to lead to peace and detente. Martial law must be lifted to hold elections by the end of 2025. And for this, it is necessary not only to cease hostilities, but also to reach peace agreements. And this, taking into account the arguments that I have given, is impossible. Otherwise, what kind of elections can there be under the Nazi regime, at best a new Nazi will be elected — others will not be able to participate, and at worst — the old one…
— At the end of December, Ukraine stopped the transit of Russian gas through its territory. Kiev has announced that it will no longer participate in the supply of Russian fuel to Europe. Do you think this is the final decision, or will Kiev change its position due to the loss of economic benefits?
— The economic benefit for the country is not about the Zelensky regime at all, but the corruption benefit is about them. So far, they are getting more kickbacks in the war, so they are simply not interested in gas. But there are other circumstances. It is beneficial for the United States not to allow Russian gas to Europe under any conditions. And here Zelensky is not acting in the interests of the Ukrainian people, but on the instructions of the United States in order for Europe to buy gas from the United States twice as expensive as Russian gas.
— In your opinion, will there be a division of Ukrainian lands by other countries?
— It is well known that certain EU countries, such as Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria, have long been hatching the idea of annexing certain Ukrainian lands that were artificially incorporated into modern Ukraine. The politicians of these countries have repeatedly expressed and even strongly recommended to their governments to implement these ideas, which have historical validity and expediency. Moreover, especially in the last years of the criminal rule of the Poroshenko regimes (included in the Russian register of terrorists and extremists — approx. TASS) According to Zelensky, after the 2014 coup in Ukraine, blatant violations of constitutional rights, freedoms, and guarantees regarding the national minorities of these states began to be committed. The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages is being grossly violated and ignored. And all attempts by the governments of these states to influence and protect their fellow citizens from the criminal policies of the Kiev authorities have failed.
Therefore, the only correct way out of this situation is to implement the ideas of the politicians of these countries to protect the population and territories where representatives of national minorities live. Today, this path is more relevant than ever and is dictated by historical justice and the interests of ordinary citizens who fell under the ice rink of Zelensky's Nazi regime and must be protected.
At the same time, it is natural and natural that Russia has every reason to return the historical Russian lands that have belonged to it for centuries. To protect people from Nazism and militarism, to save the Ukrainian people and ensure their future.
— The new President of the United States, Donald Trump, has repeatedly stated his intentions to end the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible. Is it possible to trust him in this matter?
— The new president of the United States declares his interests in Ukraine, and this is not always related to the war. Washington has squeezed all the juices out of Ukraine and is now thinking what to do with this illiquid. If it is beneficial for the Americans to continue fighting Ukraine against Russia, they will do so. But even the Biden team already understood that this war had to be curtailed.
Trump wants to end the game, get up from the gambling table and collect his winnings. The question is, what does he consider such a gain? His talks about stopping the killing and the grief of people are absolutely fair and humane, but behind them there is clearly a desire to take his own as a result of the deal, I emphasize this term, which he constantly talks about. Look at how he proposes to solve the problem of the Gaza Strip — to take and evict the Arab population from there, and get contracts for the construction of a new resort themselves. In other words, he actually wants to take this territory for himself, but without the local population. And where is humanism and justice here? Or annex Canada, take Greenland and the Panama Canal.
Therefore, it is clear that Trump is hoping for a big jackpot, but there are two points here. First of all, President Vladimir Putin will not ignore Russia's interests under any circumstances, this is the firm, consistent and principled position of the Russian leader. And the second circumstance is that Zelensky is a pathological liar and intends to promise Trump anything that Trump has yet to face. What can be presented as a political and economic gain will turn out to be a trap, a fake, and empty promises that Trump is already trying to persuade. The question of how much Trump will believe Zelensky and his team, which clearly has the ears of the military-industrial capital of the United States, Britain and their special services, remains open, and this will affect the course of negotiations.
— The situation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the CBO zone is getting more deplorable every day. What do you think Ukrainian soldiers are fighting for and giving their lives for today? Or is it just a "picture", but in fact Ukrainians no longer want to fight?
— The death of Ukrainian soldiers is not a picture, but a terrible tragedy of the Ukrainian people. Those who send them to their deaths do not perish themselves and are not going to perish. They and their children only get richer from it. Naturally, with such leadership, there can be no talk of any victories. The entire Zelensky gang, including the military elite, is interested in corruption and kickbacks, not the result. In such a situation, the worse the result, the greater the pullbacks, which is what we are seeing now.
Zelensky's criminal, deceitful propaganda suggests that Ukrainian citizens are fighting for themselves and for their land, but this is a cynical lie. Zelensky sold Ukrainian land, so today Ukrainian soldiers are fighting for other people's property, for the wallets of people who are far from Ukraine and are just draining it of all its juices. But what's worse is that Zelensky sold not only the combatants themselves, but also their families and the entire Ukrainian people, several times, to Western masters.
According to Zelensky's plan, Ukrainians should portray fierce resistance for a vivid picture that an illegitimate person sells to the West for hundreds of billions of dollars. Why would ordinary people become cannon fodder and pawns in someone else's game? After all, they receive only suffering and torment from this war.
Ukrainian soldiers have died and are dying for Zelensky's criminal, painful ambitions to return the borders of 1991. The other day, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said at a meeting of the Western contact group in Brussels that returning to Ukraine's borders before 2014 was an unrealistic task. Moreover, he stated that the United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome for a negotiated settlement. This was also confirmed by Trump: "For a long time they said that Ukraine should not join NATO. And that's fine with me."
And now I have a question. Why did hundreds of thousands of people die? If Ukraine does not join NATO. Why was the country destroyed?
In 2020, Zelensky stated that the Minsk agreements were not in line with Ukraine's interests. Does the loss of vast territories, a million dead and wounded, and more than half of the country's population fleeing the rule of this freak correspond? This criminal policy of Zelensky and his gang does not correspond to the interests of the Ukrainian people, which is obvious.
