JRL NEWSWATCH: “‘Point of no return’: Why Kyiv won’t sit down with the Kremlin” – AFP
“… [Ukrainian] [o]fficials say almost all agreements … Kyiv entered into since the [Soviet] collapse … were scrapped by Moscow … that sitting down with Russia is pointless at best … dangerous at worst. ‘Putin is a habitual liar who promised international leaders that he would not attack Ukraine days before his invasion in February 2022,’ Ukraine’s foreign minister [Dmytro Kuleba] said recently. He cited agreements from 1994, 1997, 2014 and 2015 in which Russia … agreed to recognise and respect Ukrainian territorial integrity or commit to terms of fighting that Kuleba said Moscow … brazenly disregarded. In October last year — days after the Kremlin annexed swathes of Ukrainian territory — … Zelensky signed a decree ruling out talks with Moscow as long as Putin was in power. …”
Zelensky’s decision came after Ukraine’s discovery of mass civilian killings and evidence of other atrocities in places like Bucha liberated from Russian occupation.