Russia lists ‘goodwill gesture’ for talks, has a condition to end Ukraine war
Russia on Wednesday said it is ‘interested in ending military operations’ in Ukraine if its President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agrees to ‘conditions’ put forward by Moscow at negotiations, Russian media RT reported quoting Kremlin.
The Kremlin also said that it has halted the attack on Kyiv as a ‘goodwill gesture’ to promote peace talks. “Withdrawal of Russian forces from the Kyiv region is a gesture of goodwill to create conditions for negotiations, during which serious decisions are possible,” the Kremlin said.
Russia has removed about two-thirds of its troops from around Kyiv, mostly sent back to Belarus with plans to redeploy elsewhere in Ukraine, a senior US official said on Monday. “They have about a third left of the forces that they had arrayed against Kyiv,” the official told news agency AFP.
While Russia calls withdrawal of troops a gesture of goodwill, Western military analysts told AFP the ‘failed Kyiv siege’ is a “significant defeat for the Russians”.
Conditions put forward by Moscow
Russia has stated clearly on several occasions that it wants legal guarantees that Ukraine will never be allowed to join NATO, the Western military alliance. Russia wants Ukraine to change its constitution to cement this.
Moscow has also demanded that Ukraine recognise the independence of two pro-Russian regions eastern Ukraine- Donetsk and Lugansk. Russia also wants Ukraine to recognise Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, as Russian territory.
Ukraine’s stand
“Key questions during the negotiations include security guarantees, a cease-fire, the withdrawal of Russian troops, and the political resolution of disputed territories,” Mykhailo Podolyak, a member of the Ukrainian negotiating group, has said on several occasions.
The presidential adviser has also ruled out the question of giving up any inch of Ukrainian land. “This process may drag longer given the number of mutually exclusive positions. There are some concessions that we definitely aren’t going to make. We cannot give away any territories,” Podolyak told Bloomberg in March.
Heavy fighting and air strikes by Russian forces continue in the encircled Ukrainian city of Mariupol as the war enters day 42.
On Tuesday, Zelenskyy urged the United Nations to do more to stop Moscow’s aggression in his homeland, saying Russia was abusing its veto powers at the Security Council to block efforts toward peace.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will visit Kyiv this week in a show of support for Ukraine.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, when its President Vladimir Putin launched what he calls a “special military operation” to demilitarise and “denazify” the pro-Western neighbour.