Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a July 21 interview that President Volodymyr Zelensky will likely need to hold a public referendum before agreeing to any territorial compromises with Russia.
The statement follows a proposal by former U.S. President Donald Trump for a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia. As Trump's victory in the Nov. 5 presidential election becomes more likely, efforts are underway to sway him to Ukraine's side and ensure that any potential deal is favorable to Kyiv.
"The next few months will be very difficult for Volodymyr Zelensky. Should he continue the war with new deaths and destruction, or consider a territorial compromise with Putin?" Klitschko said during an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. "How can we explain to the country that we need to give up pieces of our territory that cost the lives of thousands of our fighting heroes? Whatever move he makes, our president risks political suicide."
He said that "Zelensky will probably need to resort to a referendum."
"I don't think he can reach such painful and important agreements on his own without popular legitimization," Klitschko added.
Three-quarters of Ukrainians were opposed to Ukraine making territorial concessions to Russia to reach a peace deal, according to a poll published in December by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, a slight decrease from the 84% who said were opposed in May 2023.
In the same interview, Klitschko criticized Zelensky for concentrating power in his office, and said Ukraine's parliament had been rendered irrelevant.
Because elections are impossible, Klitschko pushed for the creation of a national unity government, to "avoid having all important choices relegated only to the President's Office," but expressed doubt that Zelensky would be willing to give up any power to achieve this.
Klitschko and Zelensky have been at odds since the president's first year in office. The conflict has played out in repeated investigations and attempts to remove the mayor from the Kyiv City State Administration.
Elsa Court
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