Will Zelenskyy revoke the presidential order banning negotiations with Putin?

The Ukrainian president has just stated that he will wait for Putin to go to Istanbul on Thursday. This statement was made after Trump issued a strong tweet, in which Trump wrote that Ukraine "must immediately" agree to negotiate with Putin's proposal for talks in Turkey.

It is unclear how the Kremlin will respond (yesterday they said they would send a negotiation delegation to Istanbul). From the current situation, it seems that Zelenskyy is betting that Putin will not be willing to negotiate with him, so if the negotiation fails, the blame will fall on Russia.

However, there is also a purely legal issue with the Ukrainian president's statement. That is the presidential order signed by him on September 30, 2022, which bans negotiations with Putin himself.

This order implements the decision of the National Security and Defense Council, with the first article stating: "Negotiations with the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin are impossible."

Later, Zelenskyy and Yermak said that this order does not ban the president himself or his specially authorized personnel from conducting such negotiations. However, there is no such exception clause in the text of the document.

In commenting on this order, Zelenskyy once said in 2022: "It is obvious that negotiating with this Russian president about the war is impossible. He does not know what dignity and honesty are. Therefore, we are ready to talk with Russia, but it will be with another Russian president." - The Ukrainian president said at that time.

Afterwards, Russia repeatedly called on Ukraine to revoke this order to unlock the negotiation process. Moscow pointed out that affected by this order, even if negotiations are held, Ukraine may declare any agreement reached with Putin invalid based on this order in the future.

Ukraine denied as above and said that Zelenskyy can negotiate with the Russian president. But it cannot be ruled out that the order may be revoked before Thursday - especially if Putin agrees to meet but makes revoking this order a precondition.

Source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1831860222936073/

Disclaimer: This article represents the author's personal views.