Russia is not opposed to Ukraine's accession to the EU – Medinsky
The Russian delegation at the negotiation meeting in Istanbul said that Russia is not opposed to Ukraine's accession to the EU.
Source: assistant to the President and head of the Russian delegation Vladimir Medinsky, reported by "Evropeyskaya Pravda" with reference to the Russian state agency RIA "Novosti".
"The Russian Federation has no objection to Ukraine's aspirations to join the European Union," Medinsky said.
He also said that Ukraine's proposals for security guarantees do not apply to the territory of Crimea and Donbas, but, according to him, Ukraine should abandon the desire to regain these territories by military means.
Background: as the former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and member of the Ukrainian delegation Alexander Chaly stated, the absence of objections to Ukraine joining the EU in the future is fundamentally important for Ukraine, and the guarantor countries should commit to facilitating this process.
As reported, at the meeting in Istanbul Ukraine has proposed signing a new international agreement on security guarantees.
According to Chaly, security guarantees for Ukraine are one possible diplomatic route to ending the war. As he said, "the key requirement is legally binding guarantees for Ukraine, which in their content and form should be similar to Part 5 of the NATO Charter".
