Over 100 days have passed and the world has unfortunately become accustomed to the violence in Ukraine. However, the war is ongoing, Russia has already invaded one-fifth of the country according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, while millions have escaped and thousands have been killed.
Eager to have the latest information on this horrible war, I reached out to Ukraine's chief negotiator, Mr. Rustem Umerov. He is in the delegation leading the talks with Russia and often comes to Turkey. I asked him questions about the last developments in the field and he gave me detailed answers. First, I asked how much of Ukraine's territory is under Russian occupation. He said that the situation can vary daily as the Ukrainian army regains control over even more settlements. “They have already de-occupied more than 1,015 settlements across Ukraine. We have already started the process of recovery and rebuilding our territories,” he noted.
Together with the Polish government, he said they have opened three modular camps for internally displaced persons. On this matter, Ukraine expects great support from Turkey and Turkish colleagues.
“The government of Ukraine is already working on a plan for the reconstruction of the country. Dozens of countries including Turkey have already offered their assistance in restoring Ukrainian cities.”
According to Umerov, “the difference between Russia and Ukraine is that we, even during the war, think about how to rebuild our country. And Russians, living in a peaceful country, think about how to destroy their neighbor cities.”
I later asked the following questions and have shared his answers in full below.
The negotiation process is currently on pause. It is difficult to negotiate with Russians, they are constantly twisting their stories and breaking agreements. All this time, Russians were sitting at the negotiation table with their agenda, claiming there were Nazis in Ukraine. Their claims have no substance, facts or proof.
We have a Jew as a president, a Georgian as head of the biggest faction in the Parliament and a Crimean Tatar-Muslim member of the official delegation with Russians. Could it be possible if Ukraine was a Nazi country? There is no Nazism in Ukraine from which the Russians came to save us.
The task of our delegation in peace talks with the Russians was to face them with reality. But after what we witnessed in Bucha, Borodyanka, Hostomel, Mariupol and other cities, it becomes more challenging to negotiate with them.
Yet later we were focused on negotiating humanitarian issues, releasing of political prisoners, evacuating our people and releasing our soldiers from Azovstal, Mariupol. Thanks to the negotiation efforts we have established humanitarian corridors and saved more than 300,000 Ukrainians.
We are grateful to Turkey for its leading role in mediating our countries in peace talks and we expect Turkey to become the guarantor of the security of our state.
For the last eight years, Turkey has been one of the most prominent friends, partners and advocates of Ukraine in the global arena. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan himself always supported the territorial integrity of Ukraine and was active in elaborating solutions to finding a resolution to this war.
Turkey’s position after a full-scale invasion is consistent with the country’s policy over the last eight years. On Feb. 24, we contacted the Turkish president. He agreed to hold talks in Turkey. The president himself and his whole team are constantly in contact and making steps to mediate the process, including their immense efforts to organize meetings for both presidents.
Turkey was among the countries actively involved in the operation of liberating our soldiers from Azovstal in Mariupol. And today jointly we are working on finding solutions on how to unblock Ukrainian ports. If the world does not find a solution to how to export Ukrainian grains, millions will face hunger in a couple of months.
The Ukrainian president from the very first day said that he is ready to meet the Russian leader. We have nothing to hide. We are defending ourselves.
I think when there will be more substantial grounds to discuss between the two presidents, the meeting will take place. And we are thankful to our Turkish colleagues for their willingness to host them.
I am convinced that it is a sovereign right of each country to decide what organization to join. If they consider joining NATO the best option for them and if all other member states support their struggle then it is their right to decide whether to join or not.
