Russia says it has advanced in negotiations, but Ukraine denies it

The chief negotiator of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinski, said this Friday (18) that the two countries at war are approaching “as much as possible” their positions on the neutral status of Ukraine with respect to NATO and have reached “half of the way” in the talks on the demilitarization of the country. The information, however, was denied by the adviser to the Ukrainian president and member of the negotiation team, Mykhailo Podolyak.

Ukraine’s representative accused the Russian delegation of an attempt to create “media tension”. “Our positions remain unchanged. Ceasefire, troop withdrawal and strong security guarantees with concrete formulas,” Podolyak wrote on Twitter.

The post followed a statement by Vladimir Medinski, reproduced by the TASS news agency, stating that negotiators are “somewhere halfway there” in the discussion on Ukraine’s demilitarization.

The delegations of Russia and Ukraine have already met on three occasions, in the territory of Belarus, the last one on the 7th. Three days later, there was a meeting between the ministers of Foreign Affairs of the two countries, in Turkey. Since then, negotiations between representations have taken place by videoconference.