Status: 03/28/2022 04:15 a.m
The ceasefire negotiations are entering the next round. Representatives of Russia and Ukraine will discuss a ceasefire in Istanbul. But the hurdles to an agreement are high.
In the negotiations on an end to the war in Ukraine, the government in Kyiv wants to “thoroughly” examine the question of the neutrality of the country demanded by Russia. This is what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with several independent Russian media outlets on Sunday. The conflicting parties want to start a new round of negotiations in Istanbul on Monday or Tuesday.
“This point of the negotiations is understandable for me and it is being discussed, it is being thoroughly examined,” Zelenskyj said. Neutrality of Ukraine is one of the main Russian demands in the ceasefire negotiations. The Kremlin recently cited Sweden’s or Austria’s model as a possible role model.
Zelenskyy: Complete liberation of Donbass unlikely
With such a model of neutrality, Ukraine would have to refrain from joining NATO, which Selenskyj has already promised. However, Zelenskyy warned against an agreement “in the style of the Budapest Memoranda”. In 1994, Russia and three other ex-Soviet republics, including Ukraine, agreed to hand over Soviet nuclear weapons to Russia under the condition of Russian security guarantees for the other countries.
A new agreement between the warring parties “must be ratified by the parliaments of the guarantor states,” said Zelensky, who also confirmed the intention of a referendum on a peace agreement.
The Ukrainian leader also said that a victory for Ukraine would be if Russian troops “retreat” to pro-Russian separatist-controlled areas in the east. “From there we will try to solve the Donbass issue,” said Zelenskyy, who emphasized: “We understand that it is impossible to completely liberate the area.” Retaking the territories would trigger “World War III”.
Talks in Istanbul
According to Zelenskyy, “about” 20,000 people have already died in the war. The Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor warned the media against broadcasting the interview and threatened to initiate “investigations and measures”. Meanwhile, the warring parties agreed in their video conference talks “to hold the next round in presence in Turkey from March 28 to 30,” said Ukrainian negotiator David Arachamia. The Russian chief negotiator Vladimir Medinski confirmed a new round of negotiations, but spoke of Tuesday and Wednesday.
According to Turkish information, the negotiations are to take place in Istanbul. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on this in a telephone call, Turkey said. An exact date was not given. Initial negotiations at ministerial level on March 10 in Antalya, Turkey, failed to bring any concrete progress towards a ceasefire in Ukraine.
Separatists want a referendum
Since then, talks have continued via video conference. Both parties to the conflict recently described it as “difficult”. Meanwhile, the head of the Ukrainian military intelligence service feared a division of Ukraine similar to that of North and South Korea. There are “reasons to believe” that Putin wants to “create a dividing line between the occupied and unoccupied areas of our country – an attempt to create South and North Korea in Ukraine,” Kyrylo Budanov wrote on Facebook.
The Russian army had previously announced that it intends to concentrate on the “liberation” of the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine in the future. Separatist leader in Luhansk Leonid Pasechnik proposed a referendum on “joining” Russia “in the near future”.