In his interview with the Financial Times, the Ukrainian president pushed for changes to stalling 2015 Minsk agreement forced upon Ukraine in 2015.

“The Minsk process should be more flexible in this situation. It should serve the purposes of today not of the past’”, explained Zelensky.

Citing urgency (‘the pace of this process matters because we are losing people every day’), the Ukrainian leader called for thge peace deal update  claiming that “we can change the Minsk format, adjust it”.

To make it happen, the president called for the Normandy group to be “extended and expanded”. In his view, bringing the US, Great Britain and Canada to the negotiating table could help bring peace to war-torn Donbas.

In his interview he also welcomed the prospect of a meeting between Volodymyr Putin and Joe Biden.

“I’m sure they cannot come out of the meeting empty-handed, because if the summit happens there will be some kind of result, however small,’ said Zelensky.

Calling for Minsk accords’ overhaul, the Ukrainian president though remained unyielding in his stance on direct talks with DNR/LNR leaders.  Zelensky ruled out this prospect:

“I have no intention of talking to terrorists and it is just impossible for me in my position.”

The Ukrainian leader said that he intended to hold talks with the Russian president noting that he would care about  “essence [of these talks] and the rest is details.”