Ukraine and Russia will hold a new round of negotiations, this time three daysfrom this Monday to Wednesday, and in Turkeyas announced by the member of the Ukrainian delegation, David Arahamiya, through social networks.
“Today, in the videoconference round, the two delegations decided to hold the next round in person in Turkey from March 28 to 30,” said the leader of the official parliamentary faction El Servant of the People on his Facebook account.
The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, has confirmed the appointment, although without mentioning Turkey, on its official Telegram channel. “Today another round of negotiations took place with Ukraine via videoconference. As a result, the decision was made to meet face to face,” he wrote, although he maintains that the meeting would take place from March 29 to 30.
Fourth face-to-face meeting
So far, the two parties have met in person at three times –on February 28, March 3 and March 7– in Belarusian territory, while on the 10th the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine met in Antalya (Turkey), Sergei Lavrov and Dmitro Kulebarespectively.
Since then, negotiations have taken place practically daily in the format of video conference at the level of the two delegations and working groups.
“There are agreements on some issues”
Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoganwhich tries to mediate between the parties, said on Friday that in the negotiations between kyiv and Moscow “it can be said that there are agreements on some issues”specifically in four of six points.
Among these, he cited Ukraine’s refusal to adhere to the NATOthe recognition of Russian as a co-official language, as well as concessions regarding demilitarization and “collective security”.
On the contrary, Erdogan stated, Ukraine is not ready to negotiate the cession of crimea Russia or recognize the independence of the pro-Russian separatist regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, something that the Ukrainian president himself, Volodymyr Zelensky, has already made clear on several occasions.
In turn, it has admitted that Ukraine will never join NATO, for which it has demanded security guarantees from the international community, including Russia, in exchange for giving up that aspiration of the State.
Medinski maintained in this regard that the negotiations with Ukraine are being “lengthening” because of kyiv and “no progress” on the key issues.
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Kuleba also denied that kyiv and Moscow have reached a consensus on the main issues on the table, stressing that the only official language in Ukraine is and will remain Ukrainian.
“The negotiation process is extremely complicated,” he said.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.