Ukrainian negotiator David Arachamia said on Saturday that Moscow considers the documents of a draft peace agreement to have reached an "advanced stage", allowing direct talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Interfax news agency reported.
The agency said that Arakhamia told Ukrainian television that Russia had accepted Ukraine's position in its entirety, with the exception of its position on Crimea.
Arakhamia was also quoted by Interfax-Ukraine as saying that Turkey is the most likely place to host the meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.
The agency said that Arakhamia told Ukrainian television that the place and time of the meeting between the two presidents had not been finalized.
The two sides described the talks in the past days, which were a mixture of face-to-face sessions and virtual meetings, as difficult.
Arakhamia said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Putin and Zelensky on Friday, "and he seems to confirm on his part that they are ready to arrange a meeting in the near future."
"Neither the time nor the place is known, but we think it is more likely that (the meeting) will take place in Istanbul or Ankara," he said.
tough negotiations
And the Russian Information Agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying - today, Saturday - that Russia's talks with Ukraine are not easy, but the important thing is that they are continuing.
Peskov said Russia would like to continue talks with Ukraine in neighboring Belarus, but Kyiv objects.
Russia and Ukraine held several rounds of talks in Belarus last month, before delegations from the two countries met in Istanbul last week.
And last Tuesday, Ukraine presented proposals to end the Russian invasion of its territory, while Russia responded with pledges, during negotiations held by the two parties in the Turkish city of Istanbul.
At the time, on the tour hosted by Istanbul, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu welcomed what he called the "most important progress" in negotiations between Russia and Ukraine since the outbreak of the war.
Reuters quoted Ukrainian negotiators as saying they had proposed a situation in which their country would not join alliances or host bases for foreign forces, but its security would be guaranteed in terms similar to what was stated in "Article 5", the collective defense clause in NATO.
Negotiators told reporters in Istanbul that the proposals would also include a 15-year period of consultations on the status of Russia-annexed Crimea, and could only come into force in the event of a full ceasefire.
Turkish hope
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has expressed his hope that the Russian-Ukrainian war will end soon.
Erdogan delivered a speech during an iftar banquet for the families of the martyrs at the Dolmabahce Presidential Palace in Istanbul, in which he pointed out that the Russian-Ukrainian war upsets the balance of global trade.
"We hope that the war between Russia and Ukraine will end as soon as possible, and we feel its negative repercussions because it upsets the balance of global trade," he added.
He stressed that his country has humanitarian, political, economic and historical relations with Russia and Ukraine, and explained that Turkey is making intense efforts to end the war between the two countries.