The ban on negotiations with the Russian Federation does not apply to the President of Ukraine, — Zelenskyy

He stated this during a joint briefing with the President of Moldova, Maia Sandu.

"We had the National Security and Defence Council’s decision regarding the possibility of dialogue with Russia or not. I signed the relevant decree because Putin began actively creating numerous channels with separatists and representatives of other states to influence Ukraine and our independence. Many negotiation processes and shadow negotiation corridors emerged, which I quickly halted. I stopped separatism in our country. I prohibited any political figures in Ukraine from negotiating with the Russian side, with Putin’s supporters during the war. This happened when Russian troops were in the Kyiv region," Zelenskyy noted.

According to the president, the Russians at that time were trying to influence "through numerous various corridors."

"Both our parliamentary body and the parliaments of our European colleagues, the United States, and others. There were many different negotiation platforms. I realized that we and our responsible bodies could not control this," he explained.

The leader of Ukraine believes that he made a "completely correct decision."

"I am the President of Ukraine, I lead the negotiations. I prohibited the rest. Of course, Putin did not like this because he had many channels. There are well-known channels because some people were arrested, and then we exchanged them for our soldiers, and even used other channels, even in some of our institutions, which I am not ready to speak about publicly yet," Zelenskyy emphasized.