The Ukrainian government announced on Friday that they are open to negotiations with Russia, and the sides are now discussing the format of the talks, according to Serhiy Nykyforov, spokesman for President Volodymyr Zelensky.
This comes after Russian invasion forces started advancing towards the capital as Ukrainian military forces underwent significant pressure to push back, and the country sustained multiple civilian casualties.
Ready to Initiate Talks
The Kremlin responded to the call for talks in a readout from Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti reported.
“Following Zelensky’s proposal to discuss the neutral status of Ukraine, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin can send representatives of the [Russian] Ministry of Defense, the Foreign Ministry, and his administration to negotiations with the Ukrainian delegation,”
the readout said.
Earlier on Friday, the Kremlin spokesman said that Ukraine offered to hold the negotiations in Warsaw instead of Minsk, which Russia proposed. Then, according to Peskov, Ukraine stopped the conversation.
Serhiy Nykyforov denied these claims and said that Ukraine was still willing to negotiate, and the talks have continued.
According to reports, Putin wants Ukraine to agree to a neutrality status on NATO. That means it would prohibit the country from ever joining NATO, which Ukrainian officials have claimed was an aspiration for a long time.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has said that the negotiations would depend entirely on the security guarantees that the nation would receive.
Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak told reporters that they were not afraid to negotiate terms with Russia and that Ukraine wants peace and security foremost.
“If talks are possible, they should be held. If in Moscow they say they want to hold talks, including on neutral status, we are not afraid of this,”
he said via a text message. “We can talk about that as well.” He added that the Ukrainian leadership’s readiness for talks is “part of our persistent pursuit of peace.”
Russia’s move to engage in talks came after the Kremlin announced that Russia’s President was ready for talks after a call with Chinese head of state Xi Jinping.
Edited By- Subbuthai Padma
Published By- Satheesh Kumar
