After a week and a half of war, Ukraine and Russia are preparing for a third round of negotiations. Most recently, both sides said that this could start this Monday. The time and location were not initially known. Recently there had been two meetings between the two delegations in the Belarusian border area. A ceasefire was recently agreed for the Mariupol and Wolnowacha areas in order to evacuate civilians via humanitarian corridors. However, this mission failed again on Sunday. Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of not complying with the ceasefire.
The Ukrainian negotiator in the negotiations with Russia, David Arachamija, meanwhile rejected key demands from the other side as “unacceptable”. “I wouldn’t say that we’re making fast progress, because many people are being killed every day, especially civilians,” Arachamija said in an interview with US broadcaster Fox News that was published on Sunday night. “It’s hard to be honest, but we’re still making some progress. At least two groups are listening to each other and actively discussing different things.”
Arakhamiya continued: “The only parts where agreement is almost impossible are Crimea and the so-called republics, which Russia insists that we recognize as independent. This is not acceptable within Ukrainian society.” Russia wants Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, annexed in 2014, to be recognized as part of Russia and the eastern Ukrainian separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk to be recognized as sovereign states. In addition, the Kremlin wants a complete “demilitarization” of Ukraine.