Kyiv announces new round of talks with Russia in Turkey
Lviv, Ukraine, Mar 27 (EFE).- Ukraine and Russia will hold a new round of negotiations in Turkey for three days starting on Monday, a member of the Ukrainian delegation, David Arakhamia, announced on Sunday.
“Today, in the round (of negotiations) via videoconference, the two delegations decided to hold the next round in person in Turkey from March 28 to 30,” he said in a Facebook posting.
The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky confirmed the negotiating round on his Telegram account although he did not mention Turkey.
“Another round of negotiations with Ukraine took place today via videoconference. As a result, the decision was made to meet face to face,” he wrote, adding that the meetings will take place on March 29-30.
Thus far, the two parties have met in person on three occasions on Belarusian territory, while the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine, Sergey Lavrov and Dmitro Kuleba, respectively, met on March 10.
Since then, negotiations have been held on practically a daily basis via videoconference between the two delegations and working groups.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is trying to mediate between the warring parties, said on Friday that some progress has been made in the negotiations.
He said that the agreed-on points so far have included Kyiv’s apparent renunciation of NATO membership, its recognition of Russian as a co-official language in Ukraine, where most of the population speaks Russian anyway, and concessions regarding the demilitarization of Ukrainian territory and “collective security.”
However, Erdogan added, Ukraine has not been willing to negotiate recognizing Russia’s annexation of Crimea or the independence of the pro-Russian separatist regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.
EFE int-mos/ta-bp
