Any international agreement on ceasefire must be based on the norms and principles of international law. As long as Russia, as the aggressor, denies the foundations of international law, a peace agreement will be impossible.
This was stated by the Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the 110th week since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of our land and the war that has been going on for over ten years, as reported by the Information Department of the UGCC.
The head of the UGCC noted that this week will probably go down in Ukraine's history as a period of new massive war crimes by Russia against the peaceful population of our state. The past week will also be remembered as a time of Russia's massive attacks from the sky on our peaceful cities and villages.
The Head of the UGCC noted that as we try to understand how to stop this criminal war today, in the third year of the war, many in the world are pondering one word - "dialogue."
"We often hear about negotiations as an alternative to military confrontation. Once again, we try to understand: what hinders negotiations? Is dialogue between Russia, the aggressor country, the terrorist country, and Ukraine even possible? And if not, what stands in its way? We hear accusations against Ukraine that allegedly it refuses negotiations or is not yet ready, lacks courage for them?" asks the spiritual leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholics.
"We declare the full truth," emphasized His Beatitude Sviatoslav, "that Ukraine has been advocating for dialogue from the very beginning of the confrontation. At the initiative of the President of Ukraine, everything possible has been done to stop the aggressor through negotiations. However, the whole world saw that Russia does not consider Ukraine a dialogue partner, and moreover, denies Ukraine's right to exist."
According to him, the Russian side is ready to talk about Ukraine with anyone, but without Ukraine. The Russian aggressor dehumanizes the Ukrainian people. It claims that there is no such nation with its own language, culture, history, or even Church; that Ukraine is only a territory, and that Ukrainians are an ideological construct.
"[Russia claims that] to be Ukrainian means to be an adherent of an ideology that Russia labels as nationalist or Nazi. So, as long as the Russian aggressor does not see the Ukrainians as negotiation partners, dialogue in any format as an alternative to military confrontation, unfortunately, is impossible," emphasized the Head of the UGCC and added: "We state this with bitterness but constantly pray for the possibility of negotiations. The million-strong Ukrainian people pray for the conversion of Russia, that is, for a change in its position and mindset. If the Russian authorities and the Russian people see Ukrainians as their interlocutors, then there will be a chance to end this military confrontation."