Ukraine's first president advises Zelensky on how to deal with Putin

Ukraine's first president Leonid Kravchuk. Photo: Ria Novosti

The Normandy Summit will be held at the Élysée Palace in Paris (France) on December 9, with the participation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.

"If I were given advice, I would say: Protect Ukraine. This is not just a simple statement. For example, we need to frankly and sincerely look at the fact that we were deceived by the Budapest memorandum. They deceived us and pretended to help, while they only helped with words. They are playing with us, like a cat and mouse game," said the first President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk.

According to Mr. Kravchuk, incumbent Ukrainian President Zelensky needs to affirm that the Ukrainian people are "a great nation", and the leaders participating in the summit need to discuss "meeting the interests of the Ukrainian people".

The former president added that the Ukrainian leader needs to focus on national interests in negotiations. "The most important thing is courage, will and courage to present those interests," Kravchuk said.

High-level talks in the Normandy Format have been held since June 2014. Then, after the 70th anniversary of the Allied landings on the beaches of Normandy (France), the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany met for the first time to discuss the settlement of the military conflict in Donbass. Since then, telephone calls and summits have been held annually.

The Budapest Memorandum is considered an international agreement on security guarantees related to Kiev's accession to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, signed by Ukraine, Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom in 1964. The memorandum has ended, but the nuclear powers still commit to providing security guarantees to Kiev.