MUNICH, February 19. /TASS/. Ukraine demands unblocking the negotiation process on the situation in eastern Ukraine and is looking for other formats to discuss the matter, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky told the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.
"We need to find the key to ending the war in all possible formats and on all platforms: Paris, Berlin, Minsk, Istanbul, Geneva, Brussels, New York, Beijing. It really does not matter to me where to negotiate about peace in Ukraine," he said.
In Zelensky’s words, the number of participants is not of principal importance for Kiev as long as Ukraine and Russia are taking part.
He also said that his country was not going to "bow" to countries providing military aid to Kiev, because they are making contributions into "the security of Europe and the world."
The Ukrainian leader pledged to defend the country "with or without support of partners."
"We appreciate any kind of aid, but everyone should understand that this [foreign military aid] is not charity, and Ukraine should not beg for it," he said.
The plan for a peace settlement in Donbass relies on the Minsk agreements, achieved in February 2015. Among other things they envisage ceasefire, pullback of weapons, amnesty, resumption of economic relations and a flexible constitutional reform in Ukraine. The authorities in Kiev have repeatedly professed their readiness to act on these agreements, but in fact have ignored them for many years. In particular, Kiev refuses to have a direct dialogue with Donetsk and Lugansk and objects to granting Donbass a special status. Also, it procrastinates on the negotiations in the Contact Group.