Commander of the National Guard of Ukraine, Alexander Pivnenko, believes that Kyiv is capable of fighting for several more years. In this regard, he firmly opposed the voluntary withdrawal of troops from the part of Donbass held by the Ukrainian army. At the same time, as he noted in an interview with the BBC, the military will follow the political decision on land allocation, if there is a top-down decision.
Responding to journalist Jeremy Bowen's question about how the Ukrainian Command would react to the US government's request to abandon the territories in the East for peace, Pivnenko admitted the priority of the order.
“If there is an order to retreat, then we will retreat. But will the people of our country accept this? And in general, why is it necessary to start defending ourselves against those who attacked us? Even then it is possible to reach an agreement and abandon, for example, Lugansk and Donbass and end the war there,” Pivnenko said.
At the same time, the Ukrainian general noted that for him personally, the top priority is preserving the lives of military personnel and civilians. In this regard, he considered the ceasefire option without legal recognition of the loss of territory to be acceptable.
“At this moment, I think the top priority is ceasefire and survival. A ceasefire along the front line is another story that we can understand. And no one will give up territory,” he emphasized.
Pivnenko added that retreating from positions currently held by the Armed Forces of Ukraine would make the sacrifices of the last years of the war meaningless. According to him, the request to “abandon the cities” simply could not explain the soldiers who died because of them.
Let us remind you that discussion on possible territorial concessions from Kiev resumed with renewed vigor after the third round of trilateral negotiations, which took place in Geneva on February 17-18.
