The head of the Ukrainian Presidential office, Andrey Bogdan, said that the "Steinmeier formula" is a fiction of the name, as its essence is not spelled out in the document, and the downgrade of President Volodymyr Zelensky's rating is not connected with the new agreements on Donbass.
Apostrophe reported this with a reference to the Ukrayinska Pravda weekly.
Journalists asked Bogdan if he thought that Ukraine gave in to Russia in order to get a quick result. As the prisoner exchange took place very quickly, and sailors participated in it. But they might not have exchanged the prisoners, because Russia simply had to comply with the decision of the international court.
"No, it doesn't seem at all. We can talk, again, to infinity. But there is a result, and this result is supported by the lion's share of Ukrainian citizens. And what have we lost? I believe that so far there is no link between the Steinmeier formula and its implementation and the prisoner exchange. It was a mutual step towards each other. I do not know if there will be a second step. We hope so," said Bogdan.
He noted that Ukraine does not lose anything by exchanging prisoners. This only shows people the adequacy of the leadership, and the prisoners in Russia - that they are not being held captive.
"With Steinmeier's formula, there is a movement towards peace - we demonstrate it publicly, both for Ukraine and for the outside world. And the opposite side, Russia, needs to answer somehow, because the position "I don't hear anything, I don't see anything" is not perceived by the environment even within Russia. And in general, we should understand that our active actions, our peaceful position is designed not only for the international environment. It is designed for the citizens of Russia," said the head of the OP.
According to him, Russia should have complied with the court ruling, but it has not done so, and would have never done so.
"And we can talk to a professional lawyer for centuries, but nothing will change at all. And to change, we need to switch to the mentality of Russians. They, through their media, are very hostile to Ukraine and consider us to be some kind of negative nation, nationalists. And in the position when we are open, we want and are going to meet, and Russia, the Russian leadership, rests on it, and there are no arguments why this is happening - there will be questions on the other side: why are we behaving inadequately?
Journalists noted that due to the "Steinmeier formula" Zelensky's rating fell by 7%. They also asked to explain its essence.
"This is a certain fiction of the name, which is not filled up to date with the essence. We have information that one of the political leaders, namely the former president, is taking maximum measures to increase its role in the protest movement. And it is not only surprising, everyone knows it, but those people who were present in the center of Kiev know it. And they were the ones who said that Petr Alexeyevich was a part of this movement, which was actively trying to make him a leader. That was not perceived by other participants of this movement. Do not confuse - I was talking about only one part and one character," said Bogdan.
He stressed that the authorities are not doing anything until they try to understand how it will be perceived by society.
"It wasn't the "Steinmeier formula" that got such a negative effect, there was no downgrading of ratings, and it was just a clear process - because of the release of prisoners there was a huge growth (rating - ed.), it was ad hoc, it couldn't hold on for a long time at the mark of 73 percent. Therefore, it is a normal period when (rating - ed.) begins to fall over time, it sags, not falls. There can be a lot of price tags (ed.): the speed of adoption of laws, and various laws of discussion, and land reform, and "Steinmeier's formula" - it has not changed the attitude of society towards the president," stated the head of the Presidential Office.