It also calls for Kiev to renounce NATO and the EU, while hitting the south of the country and agreeing on “small advances” for the evacuation of civilians
The third round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine on the twelfth day of the invasion began at around four in the afternoon (Spanish time) at a point in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, on the border between Poland and Belarus. It lasted about three hours. The expectations, as few as the result: “Small advances in the logistics of the humanitarian corridors,” said the spokesman for the Ukrainian delegation at the table, Mijail Podoliac, without providing details beyond underlining that there was talk of stopping the possible fires and “security guarantees” for the evacuation of civilians.
His Russian interlocutor, Leonid Slutsky, launched the same flat message. He dashed any hope that “a final result” would be achieved in these talks and trusted that, this time, the spaces set up for the population to flee would be effective and their departure could “carry out”.
Minimal effect after two other failed meetings: the one on February 28, a simple trial, and the one last week, with the establishment of humanitarian corridors that the parties accuse each other of having blown up. That from today they are activated, remains to be seen.
Bad precedents, in short, to which this Monday was also added intensified attacks in the south of the country with the aim of reaching (and subjugating) the important port enclave of Odessa. Also an offer of ‘corridors’ for Kiev, Mariupol, Kharkov and Sumi that Moscow pulled out of its sleeve and that pushed the exiles towards Russian and Belarusian territories –the invaded, channeled towards the lands of invaders–. Kiev called it an “immoral” proposal. And on top of that, a budding high-level meeting under Turkish tutelage. That, perhaps, is relevant.
The point is that the third round pointed (without much margin for error) to another chronicle of a deflated soufflé. So it was. For all that has been said, and for some leonine conditions that Moscow launched just an hour before. The spokesman for the Krem¬lin, Dimitri Peskov, verbalized them in statements to Reuters. His ‘abc’ first went through Ukraine lowering its weapons. “If they stop their military action, no one is going to keep shooting,” he assured.
Next, the requirements. In thick line: recognition of the annexation of the Crimean peninsula, engulfed by Russia in 2014; of the independence of Donetsk and Lugansk, the two secessionist republics of Donbass; and a kind of reform in its Magna Carta – «they should make amendments to its Constitution», Pescov invited – to expressly reflect that Ukraine will be a neutral country, which will not be part of any bloc. Not just NATO, not the EU either.
If these conditions (all of them) were fulfilled, Russia promises that it would put the brakes on. But they are clauses that today are condemned to failure. And she knows it. First, because the constant escalation of their attacks has brought more death and destruction. The nonsense has gotten worse. Also because the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, finds himself in a stronger position as leader of a country whose resistance has frustrated Putin’s initial strategy. This is no longer a ‘blitzkrieg’.
And to that story are added the facts, already known, that come from afar. That Kiev considers the annexation of the Crimean peninsula to be “illegal” – as it has been emphasizing in all international forums; that refuses to give independence to the Donbass republics; and who wants to be part of the EU.
The “status of neutrality” was already demanded by Moscow the day after it launched its tanks on Ukraine. And Zelenski himself was then willing to dialogue on that point to stop the coup. “We are not afraid to negotiate a neutral status,” he said.
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The ‘white and bottled’ of that moment was the renunciation of a NATO that, on the other hand, was always elusive. That way, in fact, has been diluted in the speeches of the Ukrainian president. But that of integration in the European_Union has been reinforced. He even submitted a formal application for membership by letter last week.
And yesterday the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, confirmed yesterday that it is already on the Brussels agenda: “We will discuss the request in the coming days.” The French rotating presidency of the EU
Turkey meets with Russia and Ukraine
Ankara’s efforts to mediate in the open war by Russia in Ukraine – neighboring countries in the Black Sea and with which it maintains a fluid relationship – bore fruit last Sunday, when the Turkish president, Recep Tay¬yip Erdogan, managed to start Putin and Zelenski the final ‘yes’ to a conference that is expected to be key. Neither of them will sit at the table. But they will send their two foreign ministers (Sergei Lavrov and Dmytro Kuleba) to the meeting, which will take place on Thursday in the spa city of Antalya, in the southwest of the country.
Mevlut Cavusoglu, their Turkish counterpart, will host. This Monday he hoped that this meeting would be a “turning point” and an “important step” towards peace, because “our most immediate objective is to achieve an end to the fighting.” He added that Erdogan and his government, which in recent days has been maintaining a frantic diplomatic activity, which has included telephone contacts with dozens of heads of state and government, “will continue to strive to achieve a lasting peace.”
The meeting will have a tripartite format, but it will be held one day before the start of the annual forum on diplomacy, which will last until Sunday and will be attended, among other guests, by the High Representative for Foreign Affairs of the European Union, Josep Borrell ; NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg; and former Spanish President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
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