The only path to peace is victory on the battlefield, says former Ukrainian PM Tymoshenko

There can be no peace in Ukraine without victory on the battlefield, former Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko has told the Estoril Conference in Portugal.

Tymoshenko said hopes for a diplomatic solution were illusory, because the conditions sought by Russia were unacceptable.

"We have to leave with them the territories they conquered and accept this fact: concede to them and thank them for taking away part of our territory," she told a conference hosted by Euronews's Meabh Mc Mahon, adding that other demands - that Ukraine be barred from joining NATO, reduce its own armed forces and submit to cultural Russification - would also never be accepted.

"No one in Ukraine from the president to an ordinary child would ever agree to these conditions," she said.

The former President of Poland Aleksander Kwaśniewski warned the conflict would be long because it represented a deeply held Russian perspective, and was not simply "Putin's war".

The former President of Croatia Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović said the international community held a collective responsibility for failing to react more firmly to Russia's seizure of Crimea

Meabh Mc Mahon, Euronews: My first question today is for Yulia Tymoshenko. That idea of a peaceful Ukraine where millions of Ukrainian families can go back to it still looks very far away. So my question to you is, when will this be a reality, do you think?

Yulia Tymoshenko, former Prime Minister of Ukraine:  Now the most difficult question is: when will the war end and where is the path to peace? Today in the world, it is considered that there are two paths to peace. One path is the path of winning on the battlefield.

And the second path is to appease the Kremlin and Putin, and agree on some deal.

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