Governor of Ukraine's Mykolaiv calls for peace as country "exhausted by war"

The governor of Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region, Vitaliy Kim, told The Independent that the country is severely exhausted by the war and needs a peace deal that “prioritises people over land.”

“The land is important, but still, people are more important and the situation is that we do not know what will be tomorrow,” Kim said, Caliber.Az reports, citing The Independent.

He added that, ideally, victory would mean restoring Ukraine’s 1991 borders, where people could live safely and happily. However, the reality of the ongoing conflict forces a more pragmatic view.

“For me personally, victory is our borders from 1991 where people are happy and not killed, but everybody is very tired. So for the Ukrainian people, I think the victory is just stopping the war and some guarantees of security for the future, for our children to have the life that we had before the invasion,” he said.

Kim also noted that Ukraine “does not have time” and is exhausted by the war. “The Russian economy is suffering also, and in my opinion, they have a couple of years to start decreasing publicly. I think that Russia knows it, but still, they have time, and Ukraine does not have time. We are exhausted and first, it's not about weapons, it's not about missiles, it's about people. We've only 40 million people and everybody is exhausted. Our soldiers cannot fight for four to 10 years,” he added.

By Khagan Isayev