ACURA’s Nicolai N. Petro: On the Philadelphia Inquirer’s new interview with President Zelensky

The full interview, and time stamped transcript, are available at:

Below is my translation:

20:36 Ukraine can find a model … a solution. The model was applied for the first time using the example of grain corridor . . We agreed with the United Nations and with Turkey. They took upon themselves the responsibility to negotiate with us in a tripartite agreement, and then sign an agreement with the Russian side, and that’s how it worked. Two mirror agreements between the UN and Türkiye were signed with Ukraine, and separately signed with representatives of Russia. It worked.

21:40 We can talk in the same way about territorial integrity, energy, and free navigation; an appropriate model can be found … countries from different continents, so that no one says that this is only … Europe and the United States … prepare decisions regarding this or that crisis, and then [present – NP] a document. If it satisfies Ukraine, then it is dealt with by representatives of the Russian Federation.

46:27 The war will end in any case. We took the first step with the peace summit. We will still prepare a document. We will try to do everything so that this document gets to the table of representatives of Russia, and so that various strong countries try to end this war justly. Certainly, in some formats and dialogues. To be sure, the war will not end so that tomorrow we will all be happy … it can’t be done quickly, but a document can be prepared so that some of the issues are no longer resolved by bullets, but in one or another format of dialogue, over the course of a year, or two.