“Oral” commitment to talks
Kyiv reports Moscow’s concession in negotiations
4/3/2022 3:03 am
Will the warring parties agree to a compromise after negotiations that have lasted for weeks? The Ukrainian chief negotiator Arachamia speaks of an initial success: Russia has at least verbally agreed to peace talks. The saving idea is a referendum.
According to Kiev, Russia has “orally” agreed to the main Ukrainian demands in the peace talks. Moscow has accepted Ukraine’s proposals, but there is still no agreement on the status of the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014, Kiev’s chief negotiator David Arachamia said on Ukrainian television on Saturday. However, he admitted that there was still no “official written confirmation” from the Russian side.
Negotiations between the two warring parties have stalled in recent weeks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday that he had not yet seen any concrete results from the talks with Russia. “Yes, there is a negotiation process that is continuing. But so far it’s just words. Nothing concrete,” he said in a video message.
Arachamia said Moscow accepted during the talks that a referendum on Russia’s demand for Ukraine’s neutral status was “the only way out of this situation”. Asked what would happen if Ukrainians rejected neutral status for their country, Arachamia said it would entail either a return to a “state of war” or new negotiations.
Putin has so far refused to talk to Zelenskyy
After the most recent talks between the conflicting parties in Istanbul, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called both the Ukrainian side and Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, Arachamia said. Erdogan offered to host a possible summit meeting. Putin has so far not responded to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s demands for a personal meeting.
“Neither the date nor the place are known, but we believe that the place will most likely be Ankara or Istanbul,” Ukraine’s chief negotiator said of a possible meeting between the two presidents.