Negotiations will resume on April 1, we have a week to prepare for the meeting between the presidents - Arakhamiya

Kateryna Tyshchenko - Thursday 31, 2022, 00:52

Ukraine's talks with the Russian delegation will resume online on Friday, April 1.

Source: Head of Ukrainian delegation Davyd Arakhamiya in Telegram

Details: Davyd Arakhamiya said that he hopes to do the preparatory work for the next meeting between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin in a week.

Verbatim: "We stressed the necessity for the meeting between the leaders of the two countries during the talks in Turkey. The Russian delegation replied that a more coherent draft agreement should be prepared first."

"We will work out the issues that depend on the participants in the negotiation process this week. And we hope that the presidents of the countries will meet afterwards. "

Background: According to Arakhamiya, Ukraine insists that the meeting of the presidents should not take place in Russia or Belarus.

More Background:

On 29 March, delegations from Ukraine and Russia met in Istanbul, Turkey to discuss terms for restoring peace. Ukraine made a number of proposals. In particular, Ukraine wants security guarantees from state parties that are tougher than Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.

The Ukrainian delegation has suggested to Russia that a clause be added to the agreement between the countries stating that the status of Crimea and Sevastopol will be decided in negotiations between the countries over the next 15 years. The Ukrainian delegation has also suggested that the status of the occupied territories in the east of Ukraine should be decided in direct negotiations between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin of Russia. Mykhaylo Podoliak noted that an international agreement on security guarantees will only be possible after a national referendum on the issue.

After the talks, Russian representative Vladimir Medinsky claimed that Russia will "radically reduce" the offensive in the Chernihiv and Kyiv areas. However, later he added that this did not mean a ceasefire.

Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, Oleksiy Danilov stated that some of the units that Russia has withdrawn from the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions have been redeployed to Kharkiv and Donetsk.