First Ukrainian President Says Sanctions Not Enough, Must Negotiate For Peace
By RFE/RL
Ukraine's first president, who help usher in the peaceful dissolution of the Soviet Union 25 years ago, said Ukraine's leaders today must find a similarly peaceful resolution of the separatist conflict in the east.
"We heeded our peoples then and signed the [dissolution] accords, and so why can't the country leaders today tap a solution consonant with the aspirations of their nations, which don't want a war?" Leonid Kravchuk said at an Atlantic Council event in Washington on November 18.
While Kravchuk said the West must keep up economic pressure on Russia by maintaining sanctions until it agrees to stop its aggression in Ukraine, he added that "you will not achieve order in the world only through sanctions."
Ukraine's only option in the end is to negotiate peace, he said.
"We have only one prospect ahead of us, and it implies dialogue and agreements,” Kravchuk said. “Other prospects are nonexistent...I'm confident Ukraine has no other pathway than that of peace."
Kravchuk has previously said that while he is ready to take up arms to defend his country, he believes Russia would quickly defeat Ukraine if an all-out war broke out between them.