A member of the Ukrainian delegation negotiating with the Russian side to stop the Ukrainian war said that negotiations between the two parties will resume on Friday remotely, while the Kremlin said yesterday, Wednesday, that the ongoing negotiations in Istanbul did not lead to promising results, and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian stated that he did not see progress. in negotiations.
A member of the Ukrainian delegation negotiating with Russia said that talks between the two countries will resume on Friday via electronic communication channels, and added that Kyiv had proposed holding a direct meeting between Ukrainian Presidents Volodymyr Zelensky and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, but Moscow responded by making progress in drafting an agreement before holding the meeting. .
The Ukrainian president's advisor and head of the negotiating delegation, Mikhailo Podolyak, said that his country is waiting for the Russian response to a draft peace treaty on security guarantees for his country within days.
Podolyak added that Kyiv seeks to make the treaty multilateral, with the presence of guarantor countries, to ensure that no war will be launched against it in the future.
Guarantees in exchange for impartiality
Podolyak expressed his belief that Russia would agree in principle to the draft multilateral peace treaty.
Kyiv proposes adopting a neutral situation (not joining international military alliances and not establishing foreign military bases on Ukrainian territory) in exchange for security guarantees.
In the same context, Alexei Aristovich, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, said on his YouTube account that the mechanism of the guarantor states of any agreement "includes providing military, humanitarian and technical assistance within 3 days of any aggression against Ukraine."
Aristovich added that Russia will be among the guarantor countries of the draft treaty as a permanent member of the Security Council, but it will not have the right of veto because the decisions are for the majority, which in this case is represented by the United States, Britain and Poland.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that his country "will not make any concessions and will fight for every part of our land and for every one of our people."
Russian statements
For its part, Moscow said that the negotiations between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul did not lead to very promising results, nor to progress, and Russian Presidential (Kremlin) spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in press statements yesterday, Wednesday, that there is a lot of work to be accomplished in the Istanbul negotiations, other than that. He described the start of the Ukrainian side to formulate concrete and written proposals as a positive matter.
"We are keen to avoid making public statements about the essence of the issues discussed in the negotiations, because we believe that the negotiations should take place away from the limelight," the Russian spokesman said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who visited China on Wednesday, said he was "satisfied" with the results of the negotiations in Turkey, stressing that they are not final results. Minister Lavrov told reporters in Beijing that the Ukrainian side understood that the file of the Crimea (southern) and the Donbass (East) is finished, referring to Moscow's control of the first region, and the declaration of two separatist republics in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which form the Donbass border region with Russia.
The head of the Russian negotiating delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, welcomed the proposals presented by the Ukrainian side, explaining that these proposals respond to Russia's initial demands, which it has been insisting on for years, and prevent Ukraine from turning into a military base for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Medinsky also stressed in press statements that the negotiating process is still continuing, and that there is no change in Russia's principled positions regarding the Crimea and the Donbass region.
French position
For its part, France said yesterday evening, Wednesday, that it does not see progress in the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations, and Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian added in televised statements, "The war continues, at the moment there is no progress or anything new, as far as I know."
The French minister added, "Trust is actions, and it is currently absent," expressing the French government's readiness to work with the Ukrainian president on how to provide security guarantees within any peace agreement with Russia.
It should be noted that Russia has been waging a war on its neighbor Ukraine since February 24, under the pretext of disarming and ridding it of "the Nazis who control power in Kyiv", while Ukraine and Western powers describe the Russian war on Ukraine as "unjustified aggression". Western countries imposed tough sanctions on Russia in response to the war.