Ukraine says Russia agrees to proposals to end the conflict

In an interview with the media on April 2, David Arakhamia, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and also a member of Ukraine’s delegation, said that the negotiations between the two sides are showing positive signs.

“The Russian Federation has given an official answer to all the proposals, that is, it accepts Ukraine’s position, except for the Crimea issue,” Arakhamia said, according to the Israel Times.

The official also said that although “there is no official confirmation in writing”, the Russian side has agreed “verbally”.

Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia (right) and Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky during talks in Istanbul (Turkey) on March 29. Photo: AP

According to Arakhamia, Moscow agrees that a referendum on Ukraine’s neutrality status “will be the only way out of this situation”. Asked what would happen if the Ukrainians voted against it, the negotiator said: “We will return to a state of conflict or resume new negotiations.”

Ukraine’s neutrality status is one of the conditions that Russia makes, among other demands, for it to decide whether to end the current military campaign. Moscow has proposed that Ukraine adopt a neutral state model like that of Austria or Sweden. However, Kiev rejected that option and stated that Ukraine wanted a neutral model in which it had security guarantees from a third party.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine has sent draft documents on security guarantees to a number of countries, and hopes that some countries openly participate in ensuring security for Ukraine.

For his part, Arakhamia emphasized: “The new system of security guarantees for Ukraine is an international treaty that will be signed and ratified by all guarantors.”

Some experts say that this proposal has many similarities with the collective self-defense rule of Article 5 of the NATO treaty, although Ukraine is not a member of this military alliance.

In addition, the adviser to the Ukrainian president also left open the possibility of a meeting between President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Turkey. He revealed that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan proposed to host this meeting during a call with both the Ukrainian side and President Putin on April 1.

“Neither the date nor the location have been revealed yet, but we believe the most likely location will be Ankara or Istanbul,” he said.

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