It is up to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to decide on what terms he is willing to negotiate with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. This is how the White House National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby reacted in response to a comment that the White House has said many times that President Zelensky and the Ukrainian people decide when to start negotiations, but whether at this stage of the war, given the situation in the United States and Europe, what are the considerations, UNN reports.
"You'll be wholly unsatisfied by this answer. President Zelensky gets to determine how and when this war ends and under what conditions he's willing to negotiate with Putin," Kirby said.
At the same time, he said, "Putin continues to recruit additional manpower and throw it into the fight." "If you look at the battlefront, you see Russian forces that are ready to go on the offensive, they don't want to, they're probably not going to just sit in defensive positions all winter," Kirby said.
And, he said, in such a situation, "you want to be able to not only defend, but attack."
"He's got to define what that looks like, what we've wanted to do since the beginning of this conflict is make sure he has the tools to do that, and those tools are about to run out," Kirby pointed out when asked about Zelenskiy.