Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of Vladimir Zelensky’s office, said that the positions of the parties in the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine on the aggravated situation on Ukrainian territory were different, and now they are beginning to reach some kind of compromise.
After the start of the special operation of the Russian Federation for demilitarization in Ukraine, the Russian and Ukrainian sides met in person three times, now negotiations are conducted daily via video link. In addition, on March 10, in Antalya, with the mediation of Turkey, a meeting was held between the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Russia and Ukraine, Sergey Lavrov and Dmitry Kuleba. As Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky noted, Russia’s main goal at the talks coincides with the one that was set at the very beginning of the special military operation – “peaceful, free, independent and neutral Ukraine.”
“From the beginning of the negotiations, the Russian side was very ultimatum… The positions of the parties were very different, and we have only now begun to reach some kind of compromise,” Podolyak said in an interview with the Ukraine 24 TV channel.
According to him, security guarantees for Ukraine are being discussed at the talks.
“We proposed a different model (a treaty on security guarantees – ed.), in which there will be guarantor countries that will be legally obliged to intervene,” Podolyak said.
Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal “the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.”
For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out “demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine”, to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for “bloody crimes against civilians” in Donbass.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces only strike at military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops. With the support of the Russian Armed Forces, the DPR and LPR groups are developing an offensive, but there is no talk of the occupation of Ukraine, the Russian president stressed.