Ruslan Khomchak / Photo from UNIAN

Newly appointed chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Ruslan Khomchak says he is against holding talks with self-proclaimed republics in Russia-occupied Donbas.

Answering a question of how he views the possibility of talks with fighters of the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic" ("DPR") and "Luhansk People's Republic" ("LPR"), Khomchak said: "I am against any talks, I am a military man."

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"I am Chief of the General Staff – my functions are completely different, I am not a negotiator," he told in an interview for UNIAN, TSN and TSN Tyzhden. "Let the negotiators answer – this is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, others, i.e. those structures that should conduct talks. I can manage, prepare the Ukrainian Armed Forces for all possible threats, for an adequate response, and with minimal losses," he added.

As UNIAN reported earlier, new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on May 21, 2019, appointed Khomchak as Chief of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces instead of Viktor Muzhenko. Lieutenant-General of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Khomchak was born in June 1967. Prior to his appointment, he had been Chief of Staff of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine since 2016.