The Hill

Markarova says reparations, security guarantee talks need to occur if Russia exits Ukraine

March 20, 2022

Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova on Sunday said that if Russia ended its invasion of Ukraine and withdrew from the country, the issue of reparations and safety guarantees would need to be discussed.

Markarova discussed the current state of Ukraine on CBS’s “Face the Nation” when host Margaret Brennan asked her what Ukraine’s vision for an end to the war looked like, noting that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had recently said that a withdrawal of Russian troops would not be enough for U.S. sanctions to be lifted.

“I will let Secretary Blinken to say what he said. But for us, clearly, it’s a brutal attack. We’ve lost people, many of our cities are destroyed and still are being destroyed. We’ve lost 60 universities completely, I mean, they’re erased… So we need this to stop they need to stop and get out from Ukraine,” Markarova said.

“But we also need to be talking about reparations, about the security guarantees and everything else. We need to know that this attack – which I want to remind is not the first attack, Russia attacked us in 2014. Russia attacked us in 1980 and so we know that the goal that Russia has in this now as it’s used to having in the past is to destroy Ukraine,” she added.

Despite the continued destruction and civilian deaths, Markarova said Ukraine was still open to negotiations that would lead to an end to the war.

“Now of course from the day one, our president said we would like this to stop we are ready to negotiate. Negotiate does not mean to surrender. We are not ready to give up on either our dreams on the territorial sovereignty or integrity,” she said. “But we are ready to negotiate even with the brutal enemy in order to stop it. And we’re asking all of our friends and allies to help us to aid fight successfully, but also to put all the pressure so that Russia negotiates.”