From Monday, the Russian Federation and Ukraine will interrupt a short pause in the negotiations and continue to work towards reaching a mutually acceptable peace agreement, a source in the Russian delegation made it clear to Izvestia. Over the past weekend, several statements were made from Moscow and Kyiv, as well as Ankara, giving weak, but still hopes for the possibility of a final compromise. Although, as noted by representatives of the Ukrainian authorities, the negotiation process will take more than one week. About what statements on the topic of Ukraine sounded over the weekend – in the material of Izvestia.
Step by step
On March 20, a pause was taken in the negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv, but from the 21st of the day the parties will continue to work on a peace agreement, a source in the Russian delegation told Izvestia.
To date, the parties have already held four rounds of negotiations. And by the middle of last week, both Moscow and Kyiv made it clear that the discussions, which had moved from face-to-face meetings of delegations in Belarus to the video communication format, had already led to some progress. In particular, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russian representatives sounded “more realistic”, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted that the parties were “close to agreeing” on acceptable conditions for future Ukrainian neutrality.
Over the weekend, new statements were made from both capitals, designed to instill in the public, albeit modest, but still hopes for optimism. Thus, the head of the Russian delegation at the talks with Ukraine, Vladimir Medinsky, said that the parties had brought their positions as close as possible on the topics of Ukraine’s neutral status and its non-participation in NATO. And Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, said that “Moscow’s position has become more adequate.” But at the same time, however, he suggested that the negotiations would not end quickly and could continue for at least a few more weeks.
It is noteworthy that on March 19, Sergei Lavrov hinted vaguely that the negotiations were being partially stalled by the Americans.
“It is constantly felt that the Ukrainian delegation is being held by the hand, most likely by the Americans, not allowing them to agree to those demands that, in my opinion, are absolutely minimal,” the minister noted.
According to The Washington Post, citing unnamed American and European officials, Western leaders, on the contrary, have no idea what exactly is being discussed in Kyiv’s negotiations with Moscow. “Western leaders do not know what specific measures of any peace agreement can be discussed by Ukrainian leaders with Moscow,” the publication noted. And he added, with reference to the “American interlocutor”, that, probably, Kyiv itself has not yet decided what type of agreement the Ukrainians would consider reasonable.
– The problem is that different signals are coming from Kyiv. It is not entirely clear what should be guided by, and to what extent the various statements of the negotiators really reflect the position of the Ukrainian leadership as a whole. But some encouraging signals are coming in, – Andrei Kortunov, director general of the Russian Council on International Affairs, told Izvestia. – For example, within the framework of what we call denazification, it is possible to adopt some legislative acts that will restrict the activities of right-wing radical neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine. Perhaps it will be possible to agree on changing the current language legislation in order to give the Russian language the opportunity to receive the status of a regional language in Ukraine, as it was before 2014.
According to the expert, it is too early to talk about a breakthrough in the Russian-Ukrainian dialogue, much will depend on reciprocal flexibility. But it’s definitely not worth waiting for this from Moscow on the most painful territorial issues for Kyiv.
“But the very willingness to discuss these issues can be seen as a step in the right direction. Negotiations are ongoing – maybe we will learn something new, encouraging, – summed up Andrey Kortunov.
Meanwhile, on March 20, Volodymyr Zelensky once again stated that he was ready to meet with Vladimir Putin and would look for any opportunity for this. Without this, according to the Ukrainian leader, a third world war could threaten humanity.
Club of intermediaries
In recent days, statements on the Ukrainian theme have been heard not only from Moscow and Kyiv, but also from other capitals. In particular, on March 20, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu tried to contribute to cautious optimism, demonstrating at the same time and much greater awareness of the course of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations than Western politicians.
“The positions of the two sides coincide on important and critical issues. In particular, we see that they almost completely coincide on the first four points. Some issues need to be resolved at the level of presidents, ”he said in an interview with the newspaper. Hurriyet. However, what these four points were and on what particular topics the Russian and Ukrainian negotiators managed to get closer, the representative of Turkey did not explain.
Recall that from the very beginning of the Russian special operation in Ukraine, Ankara actively offered its mediation services, to which the parties eventually agreed. On March 10, Sergei Lavrov met with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmitry Kuleba in Antalya, Turkey. And on March 19, the official representative of the Turkish leader, Ibrahim Kalyn, expressed Ankara’s readiness to facilitate a meeting between the presidents of Russia and Ukraine, Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky.
On the same day, Switzerland also decided to offer its mediation services to Moscow and Kiev. The readiness to “play a mediating role behind the scenes or host negotiations” was expressed by the President of this country, Ignazio Cassis, following Volodymyr Zelensky’s address to the Swiss Parliament. It is noteworthy that neither Moscow nor Kyiv made such a request to Bern. Moreover, earlier Russia has repeatedly made it clear that it will not negotiate on the territory of the country that has imposed sanctions against the Russian Federation. And Switzerland, contrary to its traditional neutrality, applied just such restrictions.
The topic of Ukraine was also the main one in a telephone conversation between US and Chinese leaders Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, which took place on March 18. Even before they began, it was clear that Washington’s main goal would be to convince Beijing to at least use its influence with Russia to end the operation in Ukraine, and at the most to join Western sanctions against Moscow.
As Izvestia assured even before the start of the conversation between the leaders of the United States and China, Yana Leksyutina, professor at the Department of American Studies at St. Beijing, according to her, will continue to adhere to the previous position of a kind of neutrality, that is, it will not provide direct support to Russia in the Ukrainian conflict, but will not abandon partnerships with Moscow.
So, in general, it happened. According to the American publication Politico, the statement released by the American side following the leaders’ conversation showed “the absence of any significant progress in pushing Xi Jinping to a more active and useful position in resolving the crisis in Ukraine.” And another threat to impose sanctions against China if it suddenly wants to provide military assistance to Russia (both countries had previously rejected such an assumption. – Izvestia) only caused Comrade Xi to become even more annoyed, the publication concluded.
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