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Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia would not end the Ukraine war without the “total capitulation” of Kiev, despite mounting losses to the Kremlin’s military, on Monday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the “special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, hoping that his large military would bring Moscow to quick victory against Ukraine, which is considered to have weaker armed forces. However, Ukraine responded with a stronger-than-expected defensive effort that allowed them to begin their own counter-offensives in recent weeks.
Ukraine made significant progress over the weekend, with officials saying they retook more than 1,000 miles of territory previously held by Russia in a surprise counteroffensive near Kharkiv. Kharkiv is the second largest city in Ukraine and was home to 1.4 million people before the war.
Amid a series of successes, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that it remains possible for Russia and Ukraine to negotiate an end to the war, speaking at the annual Yalta meeting on European strategy. But he has long emphasized that he would not accept a Russian ultimatum.
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“We want to end the war, but [our] circumstances and abilities have changed. [Our people do] do not want to negotiate with terrorists. Although you can communicate even with terrorists because at least they know what they want,” he said, according to Ukrainska Pravda, a Ukrainian news outlet.
On Monday, Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, responded to Zelensky’s remarks. He indicated that Russia is not interested in negotiating unless Zelensky is willing to meet a major demand.
“Zelensky said that he will not hold a dialogue about who gives ultimatums. Current ‘ultimatums’ are children’s warm-ups for future demands. And he knows them: the total capitulation of the Kiev regime to the conditions of Russia,” Medvedev wrote in a Telegram post Monday.
His remarks are a rare admission of Russia’s intent in Ukraine. At first, Moscow rejected accusations that it wanted to take Ukrainian territory – insisting it only wanted to “liberate” the separatist Donbas region and prevent Ukraine from becoming closely allied with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), even though the war seen has strengthened ties between Ukraine and the West.
Although Medvedev was once seen by the West as more reasonable than other Russian leaders including Putin, he has supported the Ukraine war, at times using harsh rhetoric against the West. Earlier in September, Medvedev issued a nuclear warning to the West after the funeral of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union. He accused the West of wanting to use the Ukraine war to “eliminate Russia from the political field.”
“These dreamers ignore a simple axiom: a forceful disintegration of a nuclear power is always a chess game with death, where it is known exactly when the check and mate will come: doomsday for humanity,” he wrote on Telegram.
He also predicted in May that sanctions imposed on Russia would have devastating consequences, leading to “the collapse of the idea of an American-centric world.”
Newsweek contacted the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense for comment.
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