Ukraine suggests that Zelenskyy and Putin discuss the Donbas issue in person

IRINA BALACHUK, ELENA ROSHCHYNA - TUESDAY, 29 MARCH 2022, 15:09

The Ukrainian delegation has proposed that the fate of Ukraine's temporarily occupied eastern territories should be decided in direct talks between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Source: Mykhaylo Podoliak, member of the Ukrainian delegation at the talks, and advisor to the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, at a briefing after the meeting of the delegations in Istanbul

According to Podoliak: "As for the Separate Districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk Regions, these issues have been put in a separate clause that will be negotiated between the presidents of Ukraine and Russia".

Details: The issue of Crimea may also become a separate clause in the peace agreement.

The Ukrainian delegation proposes to ensure that bilateral negotiations on the status of Crimea and Sevastopol will be held over a period of 15 years - during which time troops will not be used to resolve the Crimean issue.

The Ukrainian and Russian delegations signed nothing on 29 March.

Davyd Arakhamiya, member of parliament and the head of the Ukrainian delegation, summarised that Ukraine wants security guarantees from several countries which would be more reliable than NATO's Article 5. Ukraine will be able to sign an international treaty on security guarantees only after a referendum on the issue.

The head of the Russian delegation, Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, said after the talks that Russia would drastically reduce hostilities on the Kyiv and Chernihiv fronts.

Medinsky also said that a meeting between the presidents of Ukraine and Russia was possible at the same time as a security guarantee agreement was being initialed.

Background:

• The first three rounds of talks between the Ukrainian and Russian delegations took place in person in Belarus on 28 February, 3 March and 7 March; subsequently the delegations have been working on peace proposals continuously by video link.
• On 10 March, the foreign ministers of Ukraine and Russia - Dmytro Kuleba and Sergey Lavrov - met in the Turkish city of Antalya. They discussed a humanitarian corridor to and from Mariupol and a general 24-hour ceasefire, but made no progress.
• On 27 March, the delegations agreed to hold the next live round of talks in Turkey on 29-30 March, with Turkish and Russian presidents Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin agreeing that a new meeting of the Ukrainian and Russian delegations would be held in Istanbul.
• Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that the Ukrainian delegation at the talks with Russia in Turkey had no plans to discuss the referendum issue.
• Financial Times sources said that Russia had allegedly withdrawn its demands regarding the "de-Nazification", "demilitarisation" of Ukraine and the status of the Russian language there.