The Russian government announced on Tuesday that it will “drastically reduce” its military operations in the cities of kyiv and Chernigov after constructive talks with Ukraine in the Turkish city of Istanbul.
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Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin explained that the decision seeks to “increase mutual trust and create the necessary conditions for new negotiations with the ultimate goal of signing an agreement” with the Ukrainian authorities.
“Given the progress of the negotiations for the neutrality agreement and the non-nuclear status of Ukraine (…) the Ministry made the decision to cardinally reduce the intensity of the military operation in the kyiv and Chernigov areas,” he explained.
Russia has taken “two steps towards the de-escalation of the conflict in Ukraine”, one in the military field and the other in the political sphere, said Vladimir Medinski, head of the Russian delegation in the peace negotiations.
Medinski stated that Russia has received written proposals from Ukraine confirming its intention to assume a neutral and non-nuclear status.
For its part, Ukraine is ready to renounce entry to any military alliance, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, if in return it receives written security guarantees from ten countries, the Ukrainian delegation announced Tuesday in Istanbul after a round of negotiations with Russia.
Open the possibility of a meeting between Putin and Zelensky
Speaking to the press, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavusoglu considered that the progress in the talks in Istanbul between the delegations of Ukraine and Russia pave the way for a meeting of the presidents of both countries, Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin.
“We can say that the two sides have become closer. They have made significant progress today. Now, the foreign ministers of both countries will meet and then a meeting of the leaders is planned,” the head of Turkish diplomacy.
In this sense, the main Ukrainian negotiator, maintained that the talks held this Tuesday in Turkey to resolve the conflict between Russia and Ukraine have made enough progress to allow a meeting between the president of Ukraine, Volodímir Zelenski, and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
“The results of today’s meeting (in Istanbul) are sufficient for a meeting at the level of heads of state,” said David Arakhamia.
In this regard, Medinsky I affirmed that before the discussion of a possible meeting of the presidents, the negotiators must prepare and approve a treaty, and then it must be endorsed by the foreign ministers.
Also an advisor to the Russian president explained that “this will not be easy, especially since the meeting could be multilateral with the participation of state guarantors of peace and security in Ukraine.”