As of: 03/04/2022 8:43 p.m
Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine could resume this weekend. However, the conditions are difficult. Moscow insists on its demands, Kyiv vehemently rejects them.
A good week after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, both sides are planning another round of negotiations over the weekend. “The third round can take place tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, we are in constant contact,” said Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podoliak. The talks would probably take place again in Belarus because the Russian side rejects other mediating states. Later, other countries such as Turkey, Hungary or Poland are conceivable as organizers, said Podoljak.
In a telephone conversation with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Russian President Vladimir Putin also said that Russia and Ukraine are planning another meeting for this weekend.
Ukraine calls for international mediation
However, Ukraine called for international mediation for the talks. “We don’t trust the Russian Federation at all, so we want to have a responsible international mediator,” Podoliak said. The Ukrainian side will follow all legal formalities and record all Russian violations.
Podoliak again criticized the role played by Belarus. The northern neighboring country is used as a “springboard for attacks on our cities”. Podoliak also stressed that Ukraine would not meet tough Russian demands.
“President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will not make any concessions that in one way or another belittle our struggle that is being waged in Ukraine today for their territorial integrity and freedom.” Russia cannot talk to Ukraine from a position of strength, Podoliak said, referring to Russian military casualties.
Putin insists on fulfilling the Russian demands
On the other hand, Russian President Putin reiterated that a peace dialogue with Ukraine would only be possible if “all Russian demands” were met. In the conversation with Chancellor Scholz, he also denied that the Russian armed forces would bomb Ukrainian cities.
Reports about “the allegedly ongoing air raids on Kyiv and other major cities” are “gross propaganda falsifications”. Among other things, Putin demanded a renewed “demilitarization” and “denazification” of Ukraine. He also called for the annexed Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula of Crimea to be recognized as Russian territory and sovereignty for the separatist regions of Luhansk and Donetsk within their administrative borders.
The Kremlin emphasized that the conversation with Scholz was initiated by Germany. German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit previously said that Scholz had expressed his concern about the situation in Ukraine during the hour-long phone call and called on “the Russian leadership to immediately stop all hostilities.” Putin and Scholz had agreed to hold further talks in the near future.
Obstacles to escape corridors?
The second round of negotiations took place yesterday, in which Kyiv and Moscow agreed on the creation of humanitarian corridors in order to be able to get civilians out of particularly hard-fought war zones.
Today, both countries accused each other of obstructing escape corridors. Ukraine has sent all the necessary requests to international organizations to create special corridors, said Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishchyna. “Unfortunately, the Russian side did not agree to this.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry, on the other hand, said they had contacted the United Nations about the corridors. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin also emphasized “the destructive nature of the actions of the Ukrainian authorities, which prevented the civilian population from freely exiting to safe areas along the humanitarian corridors set up by the Russian side,” Moscow said.