Russia suggests a meeting between Russian and Ukrainian Presidents, Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky, be organized concurrently with the initialing of a bilateral treaty by the two countries’ foreign ministers, Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, who leads the Russian delegation to the talks with Ukraine, said on Tuesday.
“After today’s meaningful conversation, we agreed and suggest a solution, under which a meeting between the heads of state is possible concurrently with the initialing of the treaty by the foreign ministers, the more so as during this initialing and consideration of the treaty’s details, it will be possible to discuss various political nuances and details,” he said after the Russian-Ukrainian talks in Istanbul.
“So, if the work on the treaty and a required compromise proceeds swiftly, the possibility of peace will be much closer,” he added.
According to Medinsky, the Russia side said earlier that such a meeting would be possible when a treaty drafted by the negotiators and foreign ministers of the two countries was ready for signing. “The format was as follows: first, a treaty is drafted, then it is approved by the negotiators, signed by foreign ministers at a personal meeting, and only after that a possible meeting between the heads of state is organized to sign this treaty,” he said. “It is not a simple matter, the more so as it could be a multilateral meeting involving guarantor nations of peace and security in Ukraine.”
The first round of Russian-Ukrainian talks was held in Belarus’ Gomel region on February 28. The talks lasted for five hours. The second round of talks was held on March 3 in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, in Belarus. The delegations met for the third round of talks on March 7, in the Brest region, also in Belarus. More rounds were held in the online format. Another off-line round of talks was held in Istanbul on Tuesday.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in response to a request for help by the heads of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, but aimed to demilitarize and denazify the country, and to defeat nationalist armed units, which are directly responsible for genocide in Donbass.TAGS
