MOSCOW, January 17. /TASS/. Peace in Ukraine will not be achieved this year, as returning the situation to pre-war times is impossible, Viktor Medvedchuk, leader of the opposition Other Ukraine movement, stated in an interview with TASS.
"No, there will not [be peace]. Some mistakenly believe that peace is a return to pre-war times, hoping that everything will go back to how it was before. These people are bound to be disillusioned: the situation will never return to its starting point, as the wheel of history cannot be turned back," he said.
"If we are talking about the cessation of hostilities, an important point is usually overlooked: war, paraphrasing a famous phrase by Mikhail Bulgakov, also exists in people’s minds," Medvedchuk continued. "The policy of war has engulfed not only [Vladimir] Zelensky’s Ukraine but Europe as a whole. The party of war exists in the US, Israel and other countries. There is no confidence that it will suffer a crushing defeat in 2026."
According to him, peace in Ukraine cannot be viewed solely within Ukrainian realities. "This is a struggle between the collective West and Russia, where Russia has held its ground and is advancing. Therefore, peace will come with a new system of international security and legal order. But this year, as we see, has already begun with international chaos and complete disregard for international law, Venezuela, Iran, Greenland, Syria and this list, unfortunately, continues to grow," Medvedchuk added.
"Therefore, it is premature to speak about the birth of a new security system. The European underlings who keep Zelensky on a short leash, are still full of desire for war and will not allow peace," he concluded.