 So good morning. Good afternoon, depending on where you are. My name is Bill Taylor. I'm one of the vice presidents here at the United States Institute of Peace and I'm very glad to welcome you to this discussion of the war in Ukraine. Today we have a great panel for you. I'm looking forward to hearing them. I'm looking forward to hearing your questions and comments. The Institute of Peace has been working on this issue for some time. The Institute of Peace, we seek nonviolent resolution of violent conflict. And there's a violent conflict going on in Ukraine. So this is an appropriate topic for the Institute of Peace to focus on. The Institute of Peace works in Washington making recommendations to the Congress, to the administration, but we also work in the field. And we've got people in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Nigeria, in Tunisia, in Burma, Pakistan, Colombia, and we're working in Ukraine. Russia grants Ukraine first in Crimea, then in Donbas, is violent conflict. So this is again, this is what the Institute of Peace is designed to focus on and try to help resolve. Today we're going to focus on Donbas and we're not forgetting about Crimea. We'll come back to that, but we're going to focus on Donbas. We've been working this issue for several years. We've done a couple of track two dialogues with senior Ukrainians and senior Russians, senior Americans. We've come up with some ideas and suggestions about how to resolve this conflict in Donbas. And two years ago we had a conference, in particular, where the Minister Panovakov came to talk to us. We are people that people that I love. Do you agree with Donbas' suggestion that it will take more than three months or will it work? Will European sanctions work or will they be received? How strong is Europe's position? The United States is carefully taking care of its sanctions and this issue is being dealt with by the Deputy Secretary Steve Begon. And today George Kent will talk to us. They both worked in Kiev and in Moscow. The United States is taking part in this. Next, all the problems in the situation in Eurasia, in Khabarovsk, Belarus, in Kyrgyzstan, in Turkey, in Navalny, all these problems need attention. These new circumstances can create new possibilities. And the second question. If it is time for this, what are the new ideas, new proposals, new formats, what new ideas can help solve this problem? In any case, I want to finish on this and give the floor to the microphone, or to our Zoom chat, to Yelchenko. He will make a step-by-step consideration and then present this to the Prime Minister, Panarevnikov, who is in charge of this issue. After the Deputy Prime Minister, our director of the Russian question, Don Jensen, as you can see on the screen, he is the representative of Orisa Lucevich. And for us, a great honor to talk to her today. She works in the chat house. I welcome you, Orisa. And as you can see on the screen, George Kent also got in touch with us. George Kent, as you know, is responsible not only for Ukraine, Ukraine is the most important country in his portfolio, but he is also engaged in Belarus, Azerbaijan and Georgia. There is a lot going on there. Now we see that George joins us a little later. After Orisa will talk about these two topics, I hope that I will try to summarize what I heard from George, also from the Deputy Prime Minister, and how George will come to the position of the United States. And this will open the way for our conversation. Then George will come, he will either correct me, or add something, and Don will close it all. After that, Don Jensen will have a discussion with all the representatives, and also with the answers we would like to hear your questions. But maybe some interesting ideas will be there, the participants who will show something, and George Kent and Deputy Prime Minister Reznikov. New ideas, now is the right time, and new ideas are needed. These questions, these comments, you can write to us in the audience, in the special function on the screen you have a question, you can write your questions there, in English, in Ukrainian, in Russian, we will pass them to Don Jensen, and he will pass them to one of the experts. Please write. And now, Mr. Ambassador Yelchenko, I would like to give you a word of pleasure. Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone. First of all, I would like to greet all of you on this virtual meeting of our good partners from the Institute of Peace. This is the foundation that supports the peace in international community. The topic of today's conversation is chosen as the best for this time. We all have the right peace in Donbass. Once again, Eleonora Roosevelt wrote, it is not enough to talk about peace, you have to believe in peace. And it is not enough to just believe, you have to work on it. Almost seven years ago, the war in Donbass in Ukraine was somehow even more difficult to imagine. But, unfortunately, it is today's reality and this war is not only important for Ukraine, it is the closest to everyone. And I would like to call a few numbers. 7% of the Ukrainian territory is left occupied by Russia. More than 14,000 people died. More than 70,000 wounded. About two million refugees were exiled. They became internally displaced persons and refugees. The occupation and annexation of the Crimea by the Russian Federation and the role of Russia in provoking the conflict in the Donbass region is one of the most correct examples of the dirty attempts to break the international system of the rule of law, the norm of international law. We have to resist such changes because they destabilize the world system, the international system and bring the world closer to the country with the possibility of a global war, a world war. Ukraine wants peace and we were able to de-block the dialogue with the leaders of the 4th Normandy. A significant progress was achieved in the liberation of the prisoners. The Russian forces did not only destroy Russia, but also supply heavy weapons and ammunition to threaten our borders and to militarize the Crimea. We are grateful to our partners for their support. We are grateful to our partners in the world, especially in the United States, our long-standing strategic partner. And this war continues until the end. The whole world feels the suffering of civilian people in this conflict. And we all try to find the best way to solve this problem. Now, with great pleasure, I present to you the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Mr. Oleksiy Reznikov. He is a prominent Ukrainian lawyer who took on himself a prominent role as the Minister of Social Affairs in the region. He will talk about the current situation in Donbass and the future. Please, Mr. Reznikov. Mr. Reznikov, the microphone needs to be turned off. The microphone is turned off. Speak. We do not hear you. We do not hear you. It means that the microphone is working, but there is no sound. Now everything is fine. Speak, please. You are speaking without stopping. The translation is parallel. The translation is parallel. Good. Good time of the day. Because in the morning and in the evening. I thank you for inviting me to speak in front of such a respected audience. Two questions that today are worth a day, at least as the organizers suggested. Is there a time for settlement, regulation, or how will this possible regulation look like? You know, I would like to say that there is a corridor of possibility today on my recommendation. And the time gives us a chance to complete this hybrid war that began in 2014 with the aggression of the Russian Federation through the occupation of Crimea to Sevastopol and then with a more hot phase continued on the part of Donbass. And you, I am sure that you know that Donbass and more territory of the Donetsk-Hungarian region were occupied, but through the real resistance of the anti-tourist operation today such cities like Mariupol, Slavyansk and many others still live in the constitutional system of Ukraine. But there really was a part of the Donetsk-Hungarian and Lugansk Oblast. I can't tell you how this settlement can look like, but I am sure that I know how it can't look like. There are certain red lines that we will not go through but we know that this was understood by the society, by the government, by the majority of the Supreme Council, by the president and here I think there is a community of evil. There are no red lines to change the constitution of Ukraine as they said today in the Kremlin about the fact that the Donbass status should be included in the constitution. We are not sure about the federalization of the country. We will not go on the risks for the territorial integrity of the sovereignty of the country and for the evil of the society. This is obvious. On this day, the political regulation as a final through the elections of the local elections on today-purchased local territories is impossible without taking control of the border between the two countries. According to the fact that in the 9th Congress of the West there is a little bit of difference in the fact that the control of the border should start on the second day after the elections. But today all the expert conclusions that we are studying today and any military conflicts on the planet Earth say that in the absence of the control of the border there will always be an escalation on those lands. I recently returned from the detachment from Croatia where I studied the Croatian experience, which took place 25 years ago. Some of the pro-Russian media I studied the so-called Croatian experience of cleaning this territory. In fact, we studied the peaceful reintegration of those territories that the Croatian authorities managed to achieve. We had some parallels with Ukraine and it was clear that we should study the Croatian experience but it will be a Ukrainian model of peaceful reintegration of those territories. Because each has its own history. We have a similar share, a similar starting position but there are quite serious differences. I think that about the Croatian experience I will read some interviews that we are preparing now and which ideas may be used and which may not. In order to understand what is happening now, we have a small introduction to the history of what we have started. 14 years of Minsk agreements signed as a diplomatic agreement and no international agreement that is not ratified neither the Parliament of Ukraine nor the Russian Duma. They were signed then, as I would say, as a part of the defense, the situation of Debaltsevo, the situation of the potential loss of the life of the Ukrainian soldiers. Therefore, it is clear that the political community of Ukraine was in a difficult situation and there was to be such an agreement. Today, Minsk agreements are precisely subject to modernization about what we are talking about and this, by the way, we are not only talking about it during the 9th of December last year in Paris after the end of the summit but also said that Minsk agreements are not signed on the ground. On this day, we know that the normal format is the main one today for the negotiations, for the leaders of the normal format, for the political leaders, for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as a logistics center for the consultation, for what we call the Minsk format. Today, in my opinion, there is a certain progress, maybe as we would like, but today we managed to complete the development of the army in three settlements. Today we managed to achieve this tired regime in the last three months. There are certain cases of provocations, shooting, explosions, but they are not accurate, they are not directed. Today, there are no injuries and no injuries. Today, we are preparing for the opening of the 10th of November two new KPVVs of the village of Punta, of Zolote. We had a few stages of mutual release of the received people. Today, we have four more points for the possible development of the army and the troops of 15 new locations of possible humanitarian change. But the short-term questions are not put into question, because the process of the Minsk somehow blocked the position of the Russian Federation and their proxies that represent the occupation regime in Donetsk and Donatsk. By the way, these are the people who represent the public of the Russian Federation, about which we announced that we will accept them as members of the Russian delegation. Today, we can say that Ukraine should not wait when there is a good will in Kremlin, but we must move in our own format building our own landscape and waiting for this moment when this corridor of possibilities will become this moment for the possible development. We understand that for the pragmatic Russians Donbass is not interesting especially during today's economic changes in the world, not only from the pandemic, but also from the prices of oil and other things. We understand that the events that take place around the Russian Federation, including Belarus, including the hostages that take place in the upper Karabat, have not been decided for a long time. By the way, look at the analogies of Karabat as well as the introduction of the possible, of course, of the Minsk Maidan, the Kuzmowsky Minsk and the help of the middle class organization OSCE. 30 years without results and today the time has changed and we see today that the decision will be made in a way to carry out the occupation of occupied territories. But today we are left with the pre-filmed policy of diplomatic regulation. We are left with the pre-filmed platform that exists, which is a normal format and, accordingly, the Minsk Maidan, but the Minsk is virtual. We are already meeting in the Minsk personally in March. We do this through the video conference of the Ukrainian press and the logo of our ministry and here next to me on the screen is Lenid Makarovich Karavchuk, the first president of Ukraine. It was just yesterday, yesterday was the next round of negotiations with the Security Council. When I say about the change of the landscape I mean that we should do what depends on us. And from us, from Ukraine, depends on a few things. One of the allies of Ukraine that allows us to keep our local neighbour and we are convinced that we should continue to build our Ukrainian army as a partner and hope that our partner in those relations is NATO as the main alliance and, as I have shown the last military training you know that it is very interesting. It was a big sign that we have strategic partners and we have a serious alliance. The second thing is how the ally of us is the economic bloc. Today we have a common goal that we are already doing in the middle of the ministry under my leadership. We are preparing a project called the autonomic development of the territory of the Donetsk-Lugansk region and we are preparing a project of the economic development that will promote the legal regime of the territory of the priority development. Those who call it the free economic zone can say that it is offshore but I am using the most legal territory of the priority development. The main idea is that without the help of the financial, civilized world we will not be able to renew the territory that is under war. I am talking about the territory of the local communities that have passed through this war and where they are occupied and tomorrow it is the main territory where they are occupied. We need to help them, renew the infrastructure, renew the life, increase the opportunity of the community through the funds of Ukraine will not be enough for this. We need to pay a lot of money to help the Donetsk region or we can help with the credit but they will not solve the problem. Therefore, our idea is to create legal conditions so that investors can come to the territory and pay their money. What are the rules of the interest of the investors? Three things. This is a cover of the political and military risks. The right to judge what the world knows as the rule of law. And the third is a simple understanding of the rules. And then the investor feels comfortable in this environment. If you add some motivation of some tax bills, maybe a decrease of certain sales or a change, for example, the tax on the tax on the capital this already gives interest for investors to come to the territory. And three things need to be resolved. Infrastructure, market work and market development. Today, the Ukrainian infrastructure is already being built and the last 25 years will not be built in Luhansk and Minsk. Today, we are investigating the project of the Ministry with the local administrations of Luhansk and Minsk. Today, we are looking especially at the connection to the electricity supply to the Ukrainian system, which was destroyed as a result of the war and a lot of other things. The second thing is the market of work. There are about two and a half million people living in the territory under control of the Donetsk-Luhansk regions. A significant part of this is the internal displacement of people. There are about one and a half million people in Ukraine today. They are all potentially ready to be the people qualified and experienced who are ready to work. And we understand that the Donetsk-Luhansk region is a European community because there is an agreement about the appropriate all with the European Union. You all know this. And according to the recent pandemics, when the world was trying to buy in China the right to the factories from the protective masks to the artificial ventilation apparatus, it was understood that China was far away and such a production was necessary. Therefore, at least for European communities, this is a question of the possibility of building new products in Ukraine, in the Donetsk-Luhansk and in Ukraine. And I think that it is a bit of a shame that there may be a war for American business because even making certain authorities American business can supply it to Ukraine in such a way to provide jobs and everything on the territory of Ukraine. Not to mention the living financial and including the budget of insurance companies. The next term is the legal block that we are working on today. This is a concept of the transition period, which is included in the question of the transition court. It is a very important term. It is always talked about including such small clients as OON. And during that time General Secretary Horkanen was talking about some principles of the transition court, which we will take into account. It is also a principle of the right to justice, the right to justice, the right to protection of the interests of the victims. And we are working on that today and we hope that we will bring a legal project in Parliament that will talk about what is the transition period, what is the definition in it, what is the responsibility, what is the responsibility. But the main signal of this transition period, the legal block of the transition period and the transition court, is that the people who are currently in the occupied territory are the guardians of the occupation regime, which is provided by the Russian Federation. They do not need to be afraid of their own country. They just need to get back the responsibility of those who created military crimes and crimes against humanity. They will definitely be punished or they will have the option to hide from the justice court, which will then add justice to them. Another block that is important, of course, is the forced international support and effective partnership, because unfortunately, of course, the same country has not yet been able to deal with this situation. And by the way, the example of Croatia, which we were looking at during the event of peace and integration, he says that two basic emotions that dominate the society during such a war, as we call it, are fear and distrust. Fear and distrust damage the new setting of peace and the possibility to build a territory of such a war. And then there should be a third such actor who will help, who will trust the parties who will lower this level of fear. And I think it was a good example, a kind of international participation of the UN Security Council, which allowed then to create a transition administration that worked on the territory of Krasvukovar and Podunavya, in these territories of other countries of Croatia, which for one and a half years took this transition period provided the opportunity to renew the normal work of the life of the local community, to renew the work of local self-management, to renew the electricity in the buildings, water, waste, and so on. The formula, if it is not mentioned, more than 100,000 documents became a list of elections as a final political settlement and formed the local authorities and entered the constitutional state of Croatia. Therefore, we need to think and work on this, and we understand that we need alliances. Of course, we rely on strategic partners of the United States in this direction, because not only the territory is represented by all the main organizations on the territory of the United States, but also mentally we understand that in the United States, in Canada, and in Great Britain, and in Poland, in Croatia, and in Vilnius, in Lithuania. We are convinced that we have a serious opportunity to get such support, and together, as they say, the Ukrainian language, together it will be easier to be a father. Therefore, here, just with the help of the local authorities, we can move this hybrid war. And certainly, the last is information, because as I say, this is a hybrid war, it has the same effect as an information hybrid war. And today, the possibility of bringing Ukrainian signal to the bought territory of the United States, and at the same time, the counterpropaganda from Kremlin, it is not only bought in the territory, it also refers to the control of the territory of Ukraine. Therefore, this is a separate story that we are dealing with today and here we also need the help, I am officially returning to the request for such help, because even the technological character, how can we have the opportunity to bring our signal, our TV channels, our radio communications to the remote territory, to the line of contact, to the previously bought territory, even technically, to provide these filters and blockages that are happening there today. Therefore, today, the message that is adequately sent by the international press to the occupant state, will just lead to not having this conflict frozen, on the Karabakh mountain, so we need to find a solution now and today. And it seems to me that this is possible, we just need to put together a common effort and we will be grateful for such help, for the support of Ukraine and the sanctions regime and other political-diplomatic pressure about the old age. By the way, as an example, I will finish. We recently voted on the order to conduct a sectoral sanctions against the state of Nicaragua, which we have not done before. Why did we go on this? Because Nicaragua, despite the attention to the opening of an honest consulate on the territory of the Kremlin of the Republic of Crimea and the consul's plans to send me a message to Moscow, a person who today is convicted by the Ukrainian court that she was caught on the territorial body of Ukraine. That is, it is brutal in general, the lack of independence of Ukraine will be subject to the National Security Council of Ukraine and the president will be subject to the Parliament of Ukraine. Even if other countries support us in such a way to demonstrate to Nicaragua that it is not possible not to consider the sovereignty of other countries of the state, I think that this will be a subtle reaction, a demonstration of the fact that the aggressor needs such support. I will not take your time I am ready to answer any questions Please, ask Thank you, Mr. Minister Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister for your speech Now I want to give a word to Mrs. Orysiy Lyucevich She is the senior co-worker of the Chatham House in London Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to talk about what can be done in this conflict that has been going on for 7 years and is happening in Ukraine We need to take a look at the resemblance of this conflict and I believe that this is the post-Tradian spy where the logic of the Kremlin is the conflict of its periphery Ukraine has not become very important since it is right to unite with Europe and in this way President Putin and Russia take over the position of why Ukraine is so important for them and annexing Crimea and the intervention in Donbass they are trying to create a obstacle for the future development of Ukraine as a state They are preventing Ukraine from being a legal state and unfortunately the Minsk agreements are being used by Russia in such a way that they are even preventing their participation in the conflict and they have a very controversial acceptance Somewhere all the time these agreements are being used for the polarization of the society of the local elections where Russia is preparing for the organization of these elections in the occupied Donbass This is to force their marionettes and now they are managing these territories Of course, Russia is expensive Russia is spending about 5 billion dollars to get Crimea and Donbass But I think they are ready to pay this price just to create pressure for the rest of Ukrainian politics to use this conflict and then Ukraine is ready to Ukraine is ready to meet This is what we should be ready for The answer to the question is there really a new corridor of possibilities I think there are no new possibilities that are now visible that we should be ready for such possibilities in the future and what should be an effective strategy It is interesting that in Kyiv it was recently adopted a new strategy of national security It is about resistance, resistance of cooperation with western partners which is resistance or resistance We can say that the visit of President Zelensky in London was very successful and was signed which includes a deposit of 1.5 billion for building new sea ships which will be supported by Russian instrument but also the need for international efforts to support Ukraine We live in turbulent times and it is important for the peace We looked at the idea of the power in the region and what are the weak sides of the Ukrainian society in confrontation with Russia And of course we looked at the military conflict and also the internal corruption of the system that makes possible the internal influence And the third is the nature of Ukrainian politics talking about the conflict I already said that it is not only about the occupied territory and the line of communication because more than 20% of Ukrainians suffer from this conflict because the violence increased the number of arms in the country in the society and the polarization of the country are very dangerous America should understand how dangerous the polarization of the society and it is usually the possibility of consensus and compromise more difficult If you ask Ukraine whether the society is ready to solve this conflict in fact the Ukrainian society is not sure what they want Ukraine wants to end the war but Ukraine has no common answer how to stop this war to continue the current blockade or to give up autonomy or to separate Donbass from Ukraine Ukraine needs to solve a lot in the environment and in the society for future continuation I have already said that the conflict in the middle of Ukraine creates a great sense of lack of security and there is a migration after working places people praised on the other hand that there is security for Ukraine now the leadership in Kyiv the public society must look at how to use this approach Ukrainians are already used to instability Ukrainians experienced a lot of injuries but they were given and there were such events in history as Chernobyl, the Afghan war then the Holodomor, repression and so on and this is of course a wonder about the possibility of Ukraine to withstand instability and I think I do not want to take more time what can be the three basis of this instability I already mentioned the Prime Minister about the people and the return to those people who are now behind the scenes of the Ukrainian nation this strategy of Ukraine has a humanitarian focus we live in the Ukrainian society I want to show that we are a very humanistic society with respect to human rights and these three basis we see you can look at them more detailed in the chat house for this, Ukraine needs to modernize its state institutions complete the decentralization process because Ukraine has a very centralized state and then the state of service of the state because today Ukrainian order is twice less effective than Polish and I already said that there are different difficulties here crisis but together with local communities Ukraine is very horizontal to the faith vertically as horizontal and these communities can build those negative influences that the Russian Federation creates we need to give more the possibility to the citizens to solve the problem we previously looked at the problem of development of the community the main part and the problem of national security if you look at such a territory as Uzhgorod, Mykolaev and Sevrodonec only 13% of people say that they are satisfied with the community even in Ivano-Frankivsk only 29% this is one of the areas where the citizens can get more influence what why Donbass I have a problem because a lot of people are afraid that in the future it will harm the integration of Ukraine to Europe and the Prime Minister also said that we need to create a working place to support the family because millions of people suffered from injuries and we also need to develop human ties all this became more difficult but we need to prepare for the future the third question is this information if the citizens don't get good information how to appreciate politics how can democracy be in society this is not possible this is a construction and support of public information investments in the media not only on the central level but also on the local level because with further decentralization the public will have more resources and needs so that these communities and regions share the same values and the same views then Ukraine will move in a certain direction at the end I want to say that you can't expect a lot from Putin that he will come and allow Ukraine to achieve peace but this is utopian and in the real world I believe that Ukraine has to stay strong because Russia wants to try to bring Ukraine once when she couldn't Western sanctions Russia also does not and Ukraine is so important not only for millions of Ukrainians who live at home who are fighting for the future that they want to have peaceful free democratic future so it is important for the region and for the world democracy thank you thank you for your interesting comments now thank you thank you thank you I am still waiting for George Kent I am trying to understand what he said and what Stief Bigen said yesterday evening yesterday he is now in Bangladesh he was interested to talk with you he meant the deputy state who said to me that Vice Prime Minister Resnikov will give a job to do and together with President Zelensky they achieved the biggest progress in the last 6 years they are directly talking now with Russia and now Americans are much easier to perform important role of support he said that America should be present but Ukraine must lead all on the way to the solution and he did a few things again he said Stief Bigen told me that after the solution of Donbass problems at the beginning and then Crimea at the beginning you need to focus on Donbass although Minsk agreements are not without a doubt but today this is the way we have today maybe they need to change what the Deputy Prime Minister said talking about stopping the fire in Ukraine it is perceived as controversial and political risk but still it was a reasonable wise move because they stopped stopping the further death of Ukrainian soldiers in terms of Minsk agreements not considering the Minsk agreements in the first place should be safe and for Ukraine and international organizations about which he said Deputy Prime Minister with Croatian experience they should control the border there will be elections he said very clearly and George Kent international borders should be under the control of Ukraine first of all elections can take place in Ukraine or in Ukraine or international forces coalition those who want to participate for preparation of elections EU and USA should play an important role there will be a component of this way reconstruction reconstruction and financing he also said Deputy Prime Minister that Russia must understand that sanctions against Donbass will not be removed until Russia comes out and does not give control over the border it is very clear he also said that economic sanctions can even be strengthened if Russia will not act constructively to solve this conflict this is an important signal Deputy Prime Minister said that Russia receives signals that they have to act more actively but this should be between Ukraine and Russia and he came back with Ukraine in a month more optimistic than before and George said more clearly and now I give the word to Donu Jensen for comments on questions from the audience yes now we will have a period of questions and answers but until we move to this there are very interesting comments I want to start from my own question to Deputy Prime Minister questions about Russian intentions are critical that Russians considering all that from Deputy Prime Minister and the epidemic and economic threats and other conflicts on the borders maybe Russians are more ashamed of reaching an agreement but Ms. Lucevich will say more skeptically questions first and second what can we do to push the Russian side to what actions we will start with Mr. Reznikov and then I will answer other comments again the microphone should be closed please you have a closed microphone yes I repeat we know very well Russian mentality because we all came from the Soviet Union we have a lot of common mentality I am sure that Russians are very pragmatic especially their decisions and therefore on this day Donbass is a very big burden for the Russian Economic Federation I want to remind you that for our information in 1.3 billion US dollars they spend only on the support of the budget in the occupied territory of Donbass and in our estimate for about 3.7 billion US dollars they spend on the war 5 billion for 6 years it already costs 30 billion and the economic situation does not give them the positive and the explanation of their own society even if they continue to participate in Donbass war the Russian project did not work they need to leave Donbass but the question is what they want to do of course the first thing that comes to mind is to convince the leaders of other countries the United States the UK, Canada, European Union let's go from Donbass and you convince the Ukrainians to leave Crimea they will come to mind but we need to understand that Ukraine will never adapt to such a proposition and we don't even have to think about it Crimea is occupied Crimea is Ukrainian the question is where the occupation is and where the international borders are so we need something else for the Japanese to be able to demonstrate how powerful the country is they are playing with the fact that they are middle-class so we need to find a way to show their own society that they are powerful the question of the search for this excuse is another word is hard to use there is an idea of strengthening the alliance on the fight against Ukraine and increasing the sanctions pressure because to make them more economical it was not easy to move to Donbass so that the fact of leaving and spending the money for the government it would already be possible maybe some other things on the geopolitical map where there are strategic partners like NATO maybe some other things where they are waiting for a conversation with the table and therefore they are waiting for the results of the elections of the US and I have the news of the presidential elections because I feel for you it happens, it is talked about in Minsk, they through the two ideas pull the negotiating process of the consultation in Minsk but I really thank you and I have a chance to talk to Mr. Bigenov he was in this office where we are now talking and he gave me very clearly that the policy of the US will not change in any case that the philosophy of the state works and the support of the Ukrainian state will not change and we are very grateful therefore, tell Mr. Bigenov to give me a compliment and we expect that we need to conduct a consultation and wait, to find what is ready to sell to the Russians because it is a problematic situation they have no interest in Donbass political, social or religious or any thank you before we go to the Q&A Thank you very much Mr. Ryznikov, first of all we will go to the answer questions and I will tell our listeners that you can use the chat button to send us questions and we ask you to introduce who you are when you ask questions most of us are used to this we press the chat button and we write questions I would like to ask one more question to Posla Yelchenko to say such a question could you say a word a few words about how the crisis in Belarus affects the situation of security for Ukraine we see military aspects give us a better understanding of this question I think that the question of security is very sharp and the Prime Minister of Ukraine and the Prime Minister and President Zelensky and many other politicians in the Supreme Council in this number I would like to add to this just that there are very clear facts about the situation in Belarus and the influence on Ukraine as you have already mentioned the presence of the Russian troops they were there even earlier and there was an agreement between Belarus and Ukraine but of course a few of them grew up in the last time Lukashenko to Putin and what is not very clear but it happens the presence of the Russian security workers in the Belarusian government and we also need to say that Belarus is a part of the so-called Russian-Belarusian and the agreement of the creation of this state not many people have noticed that these countries provide a common view of international issues it means that Belarus does not have its own foreign policy it has only a common foreign policy of Russian-Belarusian and they have to follow this and what is the matter of invisible things there are few things about it and this is my personal opinion based on my experience in dealing with the Belarusian diplomats not only in New York but also in bilateral relations judging by the statements of Mr. Tichanovsky we should wait for some dramatic and positive changes in views of Belarus in Ukraine that the opposition will come to the authorities to the authorities it makes me pessimistic but on the other hand relations between Ukrainians and Belarusians between people of these two countries they are the best to show that Belarus is a public society of no negative attitude towards Ukraine there is a great history of common life both in Soviet times and in Soviet times relations of good society, economic relations Transcordonia and there are few Belarusians after these events of September they decided to go to Ukraine and stay there so if you speak in general I in general, I am optimistic and if the situation in Belarus does not return relations will be better thank you and now I want to point out Secretary George Kent with his famous metallic we greet you and we are waiting for your comment about the state of things in the region maybe you will stay with us for questions from please thank you very much John, Don and Bill very nice to hear what you said I was a part of the conversation about Belarus as far as I understand Bill said some times from Secretary Bihun of course from the United States we support Ukraine we support Ukraine and I am a part of Ukraine and the topic of our conversation today is there a chance to solve this conflict there is always a chance to solve it, depending on the political will of the party and what was agreed in Minsk in 2015 it was supposed to be completed 5 years have passed and it is expected that in the first 6 years of the war the military actions have stopped but now we expect that the region will move forward there can be a choice procedure without security borders and this is Prime Minister Reznikov but the United States support Ukraine and demand sovereignty and to have a choice to have a choice in the beginning and we support Ukrainian officials who are trying to move this matter forward now I am ready to continue thank you now I would like to ask a question from my colleague who is asking we already talked about this with Mr. Reznikov specific political things that we could do to force Russia to further actions whether sanctions and this question to George about some some agreement maybe about other questions about George what kind of houses do you have with Russia again we support Ukrainian position Ukrainian sovereignty political desire in Kyiv if you look at today's situation the ideas that Prime Minister Reznikov sent if we look at 2015 when Roman Besmertny sent creative ideas that is Kyiv never had constructive ideas but when after talking for an hour between Putin Poroshenko Merkel and the President of France I think that international community should remember what happened what were made to deal with and this deal should be done whether collective will of Western partners of the United States and other countries to continue sanctions against Russia and they said that maybe in 2016 we will accept it once and that's it and in 2016 EU will lose this desire but they will continue sanctions every six months and now it is accepted as a norm and now they are talking about additional sanctions against companies that built the Kyrgyz city Crimea and not Donbas and what is important not that we add additional stimulus but to see whether Russia will change the order and it is about that we have to be firm and if Russia wants to make steps to renew Ukrainian sovereignty in Donbas and Crimea we can remove these sanctions and renew these relations but we don't see that in the order of Ukraine under the leadership of the new president Zelensky he made a risk step on the support of the so-called Formula Stein Mayer and about the fact that elections can be made Russia put it in the pocket but no it is about improving the security so we have to continue the support of Ukraine and the territorial integrity of Ukraine and the reforms of Ukraine because obviously when Ukraine will achieve prognosis of its development it will be a factor that affects Russia Thank you George I have two words Thank you very much You have already guessed Belarus I remember we had a conversation with the Nobel laureate Svetlana Alekseyevich and they asked what you want to do for Belarus and she said support Ukraine your support of Ukraine will be support of Belarus because for Russia Belarus, Ukraine and the periphery it is very important for Belarus to gather at least minimum sovereignty and what is the energy the critical importance for Ukraine to preserve its energy independence and the project of the South Path two European and other partners even after the explosion did not change its position it is necessary for the fight to continue the project questions from the audience from Mr. Giuliano from the Colombian University he speaks very interesting questions about the relationship with the Ukrainian political Ukrainian public opinion and the political order Orysia talked about the shared society and few of us who is watching Ukraine can also ask this question and I want to ask this question to Mr. Vireznikov how does the public opinion Ukraine is a democracy and we are interested how do you see this question Thank you for the question I allow myself such probably to declare that the public opinion does not just have importance for the European order but it takes into account this decision we understand that it is very important to communicate maybe not always successful when we get to communicate in the society but we try to take as much into account what people think and making decisions to correct them or to explain the society what the need is to accept these or other steps related to the coronavirus pandemic because of course everyone does not like to live in a lockdown mode to live in an environment not to go to a disco in a restaurant but it needs to communicate and explain to people what is happening what is the use our theme war with the Russian Federation and the pro-democracy it is a very sensitive topic that there is no harm the Ukrainian word harm is quite popular and we remember that we are in the information war mode as an element of the hybrid war there is an influence through the pro-Russian sources of mass information that today are distributed in the territory of Ukraine or the critical attitude of the political opponents of today's the political leader of Ukraine simple explanation we are all the beginning of a gene of people who were born with a gene of a critical, skeptical attitude in a situation when there is not enough information we always suggest a negative scenario it is obvious from the beginning when our workers came out and heard some strange sounds in the jungle if they thought it was a quiet island it was a scary island and those who were hiding they survived because it is clear that we are building an assumption for a small amount of information with a negative scenario so we need to explain as much as possible what is happening so we always articulate that I am a red line we articulate a society that does not have national interests in the Ukrainian delegation working in a three-way contact group and so on for example, when we are writing the economic strategy of the territory of Donetsk-Lugansk region the Ministry's team drove along the entire line the line of contact 420 km and met in local communities and asked them what do you want what is the most interesting because this is the national economic sense and we have heard a lot of stories about the possibility of a community being created in their working places and the possibility of data being left in the local communities so that they can renew the infrastructure of the village and other places and we take this into account we write, we work on a level portal and so every ministry does so I will allow myself to say that the public opinion is important and the democracy in Ukraine is in control from our neighbors thank you sir thank you very much unfortunately we are running out of time we can talk about it further in the future and of course the Institute of Peace and all our experts will work and further on I want to give a word to the ambassador for the final word thank you very much Don wants to thank the Prime Minister for the fact that he is talking to us today and for his work which he appointed the Secretary of State Mr. Vikent also thanks for his participation and for his work I thank you very much for your thoughts and the ambassador thank you very much for the fact that you became the sponsor of this event also thank you Metovi and our translator Petrov Voisehovsky we could not do without him and I want to continue what George Kent and I think we support Ukraine until the end of this war on the terms of Ukraine on the terms of Ukraine we have to agree they have to agree but we support it very much we think now on how we can do it in the best way how to support it better this conversation will continue thank you all for your participation thank you for your questions thank you