The signing of an agreement on security guarantees and the holding of a referendum on Ukraine's non-entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are possible only in peace, after Russia withdraws troops from Ukraine.
The head of the Ukrainian negotiating delegation, David Arakhamia, stated this at a briefing, following the results of the next round of negotiations in Istanbul (Turkey), Ukrainian News Agency reports.
"We have a law on a national referendum, it was adopted by the Verkhovna Rada, it cannot work either under martial law or in an emergency. There must be complete peace, there must be no aggression. Only after that can such processes be started," he said.
Arakhamia noted that even at the first round of negotiations, the Ukrainian delegation asked the Russian side whether they recognized the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, to which the Russian delegation replied that they recognized.
"This is very important, since there are 52nd, 53rd articles that say that if an international agreement is concluded under pressure, then this agreement can be considered worthless. In order for it to really work and all parties agreed, there must be complete peace on the territory of Ukraine, no foreign armed forces, everyone must leave," he said.
Arakhamia noted that if all parties adopt such a position, it would mean an end to the war, Russia's complete withdrawal of troops, 3.5 million Ukrainians who went abroad will be able to return to the country to participate in the referendum.
The representative of the Ukrainian delegation, Oleksandr Chalyi, noted that Ukraine on Tuesday announced the most fundamental conditions that it does not intend to refuse.
According to him, Ukraine plans to continue negotiations with Russia in the next two weeks and has already begun consultations with all guarantor countries.
Chalyi believes that in two weeks it will already be possible to invite guarantor countries to participate in multilateral negotiations.
By this time, the most fundamental differences at the highest political level should be agreed upon.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Ukraine believes that during the Ukrainian-Russian negotiations enough materials have been developed for the meeting of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President of Russia Vladimir Putin.
On Tuesday, the Ukrainian delegation officially announced proposals to the Russian side on key positions on the agreement on security guarantees of Ukraine.
Ukraine sees as the guarantors of its security the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (U.S., UK, France, China, Russia), as well as Turkey, Germany, Canada, Italy, Poland, Israel, and considers it possible for other countries that want to become guarantors to join.
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