Ukraine is looking for a place and is developing a draft peace treaty for a future meeting between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin, this meeting will take place in the foreseeable future.
Adviser to the Head of the Office of the President and member of the negotiating delegation Mykhailo Podoliak said this on the air of the national telethon, Ukrainian News Agency reports.
"Now, with the help of our partners - mediators who want to carry out a mediation mission, including Israel, perhaps, Turkey, we are also looking for a place where it would be desirable to hold negotiations in terms of security guarantees, and most importantly, we are developing that package of agreements, which will, I emphasize once again, take into account exclusively the position of Ukraine, which is important for us. And then, when this is worked out, agreed in advance, then the presidents will be able to meet and work out the final provisions of the peace treaty. I think that this will happen already... well it will take us not such a long time to get to this," Podoliak said.
At the same time, to a clarifying question, he replied that he was not ready to say that the meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin would take place in the near future.
"I'm not ready to say that in the near future: a day or two or three. No, it will take some more time, but we will try to make it as quickly as possible, because we want our people not to be killed, our infrastructure not to be destroyed," the adviser said.
He noted that Zelenskyy is always open to dialogue, and after two weeks of war with Ukraine, Russia also signaled Putin's readiness for direct dialogue with Zelenskyy.
Podoliak assured that Zelenskyy would sign only an effective agreement beneficial to Ukraine.
According to Podoliak, ongoing consultations with the Russian delegation are now being held via videoconference, all legal aspects of possible future agreements are being discussed and verified.
Zelenskyy and Head of the Office of the President Andrii Yermak are actively involved in developing proposals for a negotiating position.
Podoliak also noted that the representatives of Russia at the talks are no longer behaving as an ultimatum, but are attentively listening to the proposals of the Ukrainian side.
The adviser added that Ukraine in the negotiations demands a ceasefire, an end to the war, the withdrawal of Russian troops, and he sees understanding and dialogue on this process.
Podoliak assured that the Ukrainian delegation would not give up its principled positions, and the Russian side already understands this.
He believes that in the Ukrainian-Russian negotiations the parties will reach concrete results in a matter of days.
At the same time, he found it difficult to predict when the war would end.
"This is a very difficult question, this civilizational war is already underway. I think we will try, and President Zelenskyy, first of all, wants this war to end as quickly as possible, and we will do everything for this," Podoliak said.
As Ukrainian News Agency reported, in an interview with foreign media, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that negotiations with Russia are beginning to bring diplomatic signals, not ultimatums.
Who we are: About us, Contacts. How we write news and our principles: Editorial code. We did our best. If you found this valuable – please support us.
To request a correction, please send an email.