New negotiations begin on Tuesday in Istanbul to try to end the war in Ukraine. The Russian negotiators arrived on Monday in Istanbul, where a previous negotiating session had already taken place on 10 March at the level of foreign ministers, but had not led to any progress, and the discussions then continued by videoconference.?
One of the important points of the negotiations is "security guarantees and neutrality, the denuclearized status of our state", Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Russian media on Sunday. This item "is being studied in depth" but it will require a referendum and security guarantees, he warned, accusing his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and his entourage of "dragging things around."
However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov tempered expectations on Monday, stressing the lack of "significant progress" in the negotiations so far.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba later indicated on his Ministry's website that Volodymyr Zelensky had "given very clear instructions to our delegation. We do not trade people, territory or sovereignty ". According to him, the minimum objective of the talks in Turkey is to solve the humanitarian problems and the ultimate goal is to achieve a stable ceasefire.
The head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov considered that a meeting between Putin and Zelensky, which Zelensky called for, would be "counterproductive" for the time being.
