(Kyiv) The issue of Ukraine’s “neutrality”, one of the central points of negotiations with Russia to end the conflict, is “studied in depth”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky assured Sunday in an interview to Russian media.
Posted at 12:13 p.m.
Updated at 4:11 p.m.
One of the clauses of the negotiations concerns “security guarantees and neutrality, the nuclear-free status of our state”, a requirement of Moscow, he said in this online interview broadcast on the Telegram channel of the presidential administration. Ukrainian.
“We are ready to accept it,” he continued. “This point of the negotiations […] is under discussion, it is being studied in depth, ”he assured.
“But I don’t want it to be another Budapest memorandum-style paper,” added the president, referring to agreements signed by Russia in 1994 guaranteeing the integrity and security of three former Soviet republics, including Ukraine, in exchange for giving up nuclear weapons inherited from the USSR.
The agreement between the two belligerents will have to be “obligatorily ratified by the parliaments of the guarantor countries”, underlined Mr. Zelensky, repeating that it would be subject to a referendum.
The Ukrainian head of state also declared that a victory for Ukraine would be for Russian troops to “retreat to” separatist territories.
President Zelensky called for “returning to where it all began, and from there we will try to resolve the Donbass issue.”
“We understand that it is impossible to completely liberate the territory, to force Russia. This would lead to World War III, I fully understand and realize that,” he said, adding that “about 20,000 people” had died since the start of the conflict.
“I think we can end the war quickly, and that’s [le président russe Vladimir] Putin and his entourage who are dragging things out,” he said.
“We have to agree with the President of the Russian Federation. But to agree, he has to get out of where he is and come meet me, ”he said again.
PHOTO TURKISH MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS VIA AFP ARCHIVES
Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in Turkey on March 10.
Russian and Ukrainian delegations will meet earlier this week in Turkey for a new round of face-to-face negotiations, one of the Ukrainian negotiators, David Arakhamia, and Russian chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky announced on Sunday.
The Turkish presidency indicated for its part on Sunday evening that these negotiations would be held in Istanbul.
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.
“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 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had assured a little earlier that Russians and Ukrainians were in agreement on four negotiating points out of six.
Mr. Medinski had estimated on Friday that the talks were stalling on important points.
Mr Zelensky was speaking in a videoconference interview, which lasted more than an hour and a half, with journalists from the opposition television channel Dojd, the independent site Meduza – whose sites have been blocked in Russia – and the daily Kommersant.
In Russia, the Russian telecoms policeman Roskomnadzor warned in a press release to the Russian media not to publish this interview and indicated that an investigation was opened against those who had participated in the interview.