MOSCOW, January 27. /TASS/. Ukraine will not achieve peace only by ousting Vladimir Zelensky, Viktor Medvedchuk, leader of the Other Ukraine movement and former head of the Opposition Platform - For Life party (banned in Ukraine), stated.
"Zelensky's removal will not presuppose peace in Ukraine. <...> Only Russian troops can bring it to Ukrainian citizens - the new rulers of Ukraine will hardly be fundamentally different from Zelensky," Medvedchuk wrote in his exclusive column for Smotrim.ru media platform.
"Today there are no other groups rather than the war faction," backed by London and Washington, the politician remarked. After Zelensky's removal, there will be intense competition within it, Medvedchuk said, adding that "the war between the British and the US lobbies may well enter a hot phase." Medvedchuk asserted that "Zelensky is still clinging to power; generally speaking, he is alive only because the US does not yet have enough strength to expel the British from Kiev."
According to the politician, the difficult situation in Ukraine may entail the loss of territories, and that drives the West to peace talks. "Internal instability in Kiev will lead to new territorial losses, with Zelensky or without him. This is what drives the collective West to the negotiation process," Medvedchuk pointed out. The question, he said, is "whether it will be possible to negotiate with someone in Kiev and, most importantly, for what purpose." "US President Donald Trump will sooner or later realize that Zelensky is far from being his ally in negotiations," Medvedchuk believes.
He mentioned that Ukraine does not have a strong bargaining position, emphasizing that Zelensky's power is illegitimate. "The parties will put less emphasis on Ukraine's position [in the negotiation process] not only because the country is weakened, but also because its illegitimate leadership cannot offer anything substantial," he added.
Medvedchuk also emphasized that the role of bait that the West assigned to Zelensky has now changed to the role of "pecked worm." Zelensky "is no longer the collective West's hook bait for [Russian President] Vladimir Putin, but just a worm, which has already been pecked and will soon be crushed," he concluded.