Ukraine: Zelenskyy-Putin talks may begin soon

Kyiv, Apr 2 (EFE).- Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia have reached the stage where Presidents Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin may meet in the near future, a member of the Ukrainian delegation said Saturday.

“The Russian team “confirmed our thesis that drafts of the documents are prepared enough to conduct direct consultations between the two leaders,” Ukrainian lawmaker Davyd Arakhamia told Kyiv television.

In a telephone conversation Friday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Putin “seemed to confirm from his side that they are ready to arrange a meeting in the near future,” Arakhamia said.

“Neither the date or place are known, but we think it would most likely be in Istanbul or Ankara,” the parliamentary leader of Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party said.

At this point, the negotiators from each side are working “to prepare a final stage, not of the draft itself, but of those issues that we touched upon, and to prepare a future meeting of the presidents,” Arakhamia said.

The representatives are in touch electronically at least every other day, he said.

Arakhamia said that Russia has accepted – though not yet in writing – “nearly all” of Kyiv’s positions on Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity, with the exception of the status of Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014.

Regarding the security guarantees that Ukraine wants in exchange for agreeing to proclaim itself a neutral country, the Ukrainian negotiator said that Kyiv would like to see additional NATO member-states join Germany, Italy, and Turkey in offering to act as guarantors. EFE

sga/dr