The negotiations meeting between Russia and Ukraine took place this Monday (28), in Gomel, Belarus, and ended without progress, with the announcement that the parties agreed to a second round of dialogue.
Representatives of Ukraine, deputies Rustem Umerov and David Arakhamia, among others, participated in the meeting. The first stood out in the country for its work in the negotiations for the eviction and reintegration of the Crimean peninsula, annexed in 2014 by Russia. The second is the leader of the Servants of the People party, to which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky belongs.
The Ukrainian delegation was led by Alexei Reznikov, Defense Minister, and was attended by Vice Chancellor Nikolai Tochitski and Mikhail Podoliak, top adviser to the presidential office.
On the Russian side, General and Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin, Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko and Deputy Leonid Slutski, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian Chamber of Deputies, attended the round of negotiations. The negotiation was led by Vladimir Medinski, a former Russian Minister of Culture and currently a cultural advisor to the Kremlin.
The intention of the Ukrainian delegation was to reach an agreement for the ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian troops, which did not happen. The Russians, on the other hand, did not explain what their objectives were with the negotiation, although it is clear that Ukrainian neutrality is the main point of Vladimir Putin’s demands, who does not want the neighboring country to approach NATO, the western military alliance, and with the European Union.
