KYIV, 28 March: David Arakhmia of Ukraine’s parliament has told news outlets via Facebook that a new round of negotiations between the country and Russia is set to be conducted in the next 24 hours.
In his Facebook post, he indicated, “Today, at the next round of talks held via video conference, it was decided to hold the next live round by the two delegations in Turkey on March 28-30.”
Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has already expressed his readiness to hold any peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in the capital of Istanbul.
Erdogan has been a key figure for the enactment of peace between the two powers after countless attempts to gather both parties for an immediate ceasefire and negotiations.
In preparation for the negotiations, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Russian journalists, “Security guarantees and neutrality, the non-nuclear status of our state. We are ready to go for it. This is the most important point.”
His interview with the Russian journalists comes at a time whereby the Kremlin has warned against any media interaction with the Ukrainian president. He laughed off the earlier warning by describing it as a laughable attempt of censoring the media.
Zelenskyy ruled out any efforts of recapturing Russian-held territory with the latter saying such actions would incite a third world war but he would consider a compromisation for the rebel-controlled regions of Donbas.
Russia has its demands as General Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence Intelligence Directorate, reported that the former Soviet power would impose a dividing line between Ukrainian regions.
Other demands include giving up Crimea to Russia, the disarmament of Ukraine, and recognizing Russian as the country’s secondary language.
It has been a month since the conflict started and a total of 1,119 civilians have been killed in Ukraine and 1,790 injured, according to United Nations estimates, while cautioning that the true figure is likely far higher.-TVS
