KYIV, March 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Ukraine said that a second round of conflict talks between negotiators from Kyiv and Moscow will take place in Turkey from Monday, just over one month into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Today, during another round of video negotiations, it was decided to hold the next in-person round of the two delegations in Turkey on March 28-30,” David Arakhamia, a Ukraine negotiator and politician wrote on Facebook.
Russia’s lead negotiator in the conflict, Vladimir Medinsky, confirmed the upcoming talks with Ukraine, but gave a slightly different time frame, saying they would start Tuesday and end Wednesday.
Russia and Ukraine failed to make a breakthrough in their first top-level talks, on March 10 in Antalya, since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine in late February.
The two sides have held regular talks via video conference but offered scant hopes for any breakthroughs with both sides describing efforts as difficult.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erodgan said this week that Russia and Ukraine appeared to have reached an understanding on four out of six negotiating points; Ukraine staying out of NATO, the use of Russian language in Ukraine, disarmament and security guarantees.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Friday however that there was “no consensus” on key points with Russia.
Meanwhile, France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told a conference in DOHA, that international powers must keep talking with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin until he is ready to end his invasion of Ukraine.
Le Drian told the conference that Putin had not achieved any of his aims, but that there had to be a ceasefire around the bombarded Ukrainian city of Mariupol before there could be negotiations.
Asked about French President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to speak with Putin this week about a ceasefire, Le Drian told the Doha Forum: “We must keep talking with the Russians, we must continue to speak with President Putin precisely because he has not had the results he thought he would.”
Le Drian said the Russian invasion had united Ukraine and given a new impetus to the European Union and NATO, while Russia was losing major markets for its energy exports.
The dialogue has to be “clear, with no naivety and a lot of firmness,” he said. There has to be a ceasefire in Mariupol “as no one can negotiate seriously with a gun to the head,” the French minister added.
“But continue to speak to him (Putin) so that when the time comes that he thinks the price being paid for his intervention in Ukraine is so high, that it is better to negotiate, there is a way that allows the opening of discussions.”
“It is for these reasons that President Macron continues to talk with President Putin, to obtain the conditions for a ceasefire first and negotiations after,” Le Drian said.
Macron warned earlier against a verbal “escalation” of the conflict after US President Joe Biden branded Putin a “butcher” who “cannot remain in power”.
The Kremlin has said Biden’s comments threatened bilateral relations. — NNN-AGENCIES
