At the negotiating table Diplomats from Moscow and Kiev are returning today for a new round of talks in Istanbul’s Dolma Bahce Palace, with fighting raging in Ukraine for the 34th day in a row.
Although the new round of peace talks is scheduled to end tomorrow, Wednesday, as SKAI’s correspondent in Istanbul, Manolis Kostidis, reports, it is not ruled out that they may be extended until noon on Thursday.
THE Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Arriving at the palace, he said Turkey saw both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky as “valuable friends” and that progress in the Istanbul talks could pave the way for a meeting between the two leaders, which Turkey is also willing to host.
He added that both sides have “reasonable concerns”, but we have reached a point where the talks must yield “concrete results”.
Continuing his welcome, Recep Tayyip Erdogan stressed that he considers the talks very important, noting that one of a “just peace” will not be lost and that the continuation of the conflict does not benefit anyone.
“At such a critical time, we are pleased to welcome you and to contribute to your efforts to consolidate peace,” he said, adding that he hoped the talks would be auspicious “for your countries, our region and all of humanity.” .
In fact, he called for an immediate ceasefire.
#Turkish President Recep Tayyip #Erdogan arrived for the talks. pic.twitter.com/JWcwD6xof8
– NEXTA (@nexta_tv) March 29, 2022
According to the Reuters agency, the “present” in the negotiations is also given by Roman Abramovich.
However, the most ambitious goal of Kiev in the talks with the Moscow delegation is a ceasefire agreement, said yesterday Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba.
However, a senior State Department official last night expressed his pessimism about the course of the talks, saying: “What I have seen so far tells me that (Putin) is not ready to compromise at this time.”
In their post, the Financial Times “Russia and Ukraine are discussing a cessation of hostilities as part of a possible deal that would lead to Ukraine abandoning its bid to join NATO in exchange for security guarantees and the prospect of joining the EU,” he said. the discussions “.
The same sources stressed that the draft of the ceasefire agreement in view of the new round of talks in Turkey does not include any reference to the three initial central Russian demands: the “de-Nazification” of Ukraine, the demilitarization of the country and the legal protection of the Russian language.
It is noted that last Friday, the Kremlin Deputy Chief of Defense stated that the first phase of the “military operation” has been completed and that the Russian army is now focusing on “Liberation” of the Donbas areasin eastern Ukraine.
However, Kiev did not take the statement as a pre-emptive strike, saying Putin’s goal was to divide Ukraine, as it did with North and South Korea, by creating a kind of de facto state entity in the occupied territories.
Respectively, Volodymyr Zelensky gave a stigma of concessions that he is willing to make in order for peace to be reached as soon as possible. Speaking to a group of independent Russian journalists, the Ukrainian president said he was ready to discuss his country’s neutrality, with international guarantees, as well as a “compromise solution” to the Donbas issue. He stressed, however, that any solution would have to be ratified by the Ukrainian people through a referendum.
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