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Zelensky party’s election success to help him in talks with Donbass, says Russian senator

Russian lawmaker Vladimir Dzhabarov said that the main task for Vladimir Zelensky is to launch direct negotiations with representatives from the self-proclaimed Donbass republics

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky Pyotr Sivkov/TASS

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky

© Pyotr Sivkov/TASS

MOSCOW, July 22./TASS/. A big win for Vladimir Zelensky’s Servant of People party in Sunday’s parliamentary election gives hope for progress in talks on achieving peace in the south-east of Ukraine, First Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federation Council’s International Affairs Committee Vladimir Dzhabarov told Rossiya-24 TV channel on Monday.

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"After a landslide victory in the presidential election and effectively confident victory of his party in the election to Verkhovna Rada, [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky has all reasons for solving the tasks that he had promised to solve during his election campaign," Dzhabarov said.

"There is hope that something positive will be done, that first of all, military actions will be stopped in the south-east [of Ukraine] and a process to implement the Minsk Agreements will be launched," he added.

The Russian lawmaker explained that after the victory of the Servant of People Party, Zelensky will be no longer to "blame" failures in the negotiating process on conflicts with the parliament or the Ukrainian military command. According to Dzhabarov, at the moment the president and his party can and must engage in the resolution of the crisis.

Dzhabarov believes that the main task for Zelensky at the moment is to launch direct negotiations with representatives from the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics without any mediators. "If he really wants to be the president of the whole country, he must make this step," he added.

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