(Ankara) The Russian and Ukrainian delegations will meet in Istanbul, Turkey, for a new round of face-to-face negotiations, the Turkish presidency announced in a statement on Sunday evening.
Posted at 12:13 p.m.
Updated at 2:18 p.m.
During a telephone conversation on Sunday evening, “(Turkish) President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian Head of State (Vladimir) Putin agreed on the holding of the next round of negotiations between the Russian delegations and Ukrainian in Istanbul”, affirmed the Turkish presidency.
The two heads of state discussed the negotiation process and Mr. Erdogan assured his Russian counterpart that Turkey was ready to make “any contribution necessary” to establish a ceasefire in Ukraine and “improve the humanitarian condition in the region”.
Earlier in the day, one of the Ukrainian negotiators, David Arakhamia, announced that a new round of negotiations would take place from Monday to Wednesday in Turkey, without specifying the meeting place.
The chief negotiator on the Russian side, Vladimir Medinski, quoted by the Russian agencies, had for his part affirmed that it would take place on Tuesday and Wednesday.
PHOTO TURKISH MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS VIA AFP ARCHIVES
Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in Turkey on March 10.
The Turkish presidency did not specify the exact date of the meeting.
It was not immediately known what exactly the discussions would focus on.
On Sunday, in a video message recorded for a program aimed at raising funds in support of Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky repeated that he demanded “a ceasefire” and “a complete withdrawal of Russian troops”. of Ukrainian territory.
A face-to-face Russian-Ukrainian negotiation session had already taken place on March 10 in Turkey, in Antalya, at the level of foreign ministers and at the invitation of Ankara, without leading to concrete progress.
Since then, discussions have continued by videoconference, deemed “difficult” by both sides.
PHOTO EFREM LUKATSKY, ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Ukrainian soldier stands on top of a destroyed Russian tank during clashes in Kharkiv on March 26.
“The negotiation process is very difficult,” declared the head of Ukrainian diplomacy Dmytro Kouleba again on Friday.
He had denied any “consensus” with Moscow, while the Turkish president had assured a little earlier that Russians and Ukrainians were in agreement on four negotiating points out of six.
“There is no consensus with Russia on the four points mentioned by the President of Turkey,” said Mr Kouleba, welcoming however “the diplomatic efforts” of Ankara to end the war.