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- Part and conscience: after Istanbul, Russia and Ukraine have advanced only in humanitarian issues
Part and conscience: after Istanbul, Russia and Ukraine have advanced only in humanitarian issues
Russia and Ukraine have begun to implement only the humanitarian agreements reached at the last meeting in Istanbul. At the same time, Moscow is still waiting for Kiev's response to the proposal to form three online working groups on political, military and humanitarian issues, the Foreign Ministry told Izvestia. Also, the Russian Federation is still ready for short truces of 24-48 hours, so that medical teams have the opportunity to pick up the wounded and dead. The Russian side supports the continuation of negotiations. The date of the next round will be agreed upon when the agreements of the previous meetings are fulfilled. It is possible that Kiev is delaying the negotiation process due to Europe's support for such a decision, experts tell Izvestia.
Kiev ignores Moscow's proposals
About one and a half months have passed since the third round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul. At the last meeting of the delegation, in particular, they agreed on a new exchange of prisoners of war (at least 1,2 thousand people each), the mutual transfer of the dead, and the issue of the return of civilians displaced by the fighting was discussed.
Moscow and Kiev have managed to make progress in the humanitarian field. So, on August 19, it became known about the exchange of bodies of dead soldiers of Ukraine and Russia according to the formula "1000 for 19". On August 24, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that 146 Russian servicemen had been returned from Kiev-controlled territory, and in return 146 prisoners of war of the Armed Forces of Ukraine had been transferred. In addition, at the end of last month, eight residents of the Kursk region returned to their homeland, who were forcibly displaced by the Ukrainian Armed Forces during the temporary occupation of the border territories.
At the same time, Kiev is effectively ignoring Moscow's proposal to consider the possibility of short truces of 24-48 hours so that medical teams can pick up the wounded and commanders can pick up dead soldiers.
— These proposals were voiced in both the second and third rounds. We have not received a formal refusal, but we have recorded Vladimir Zelensky's very critical comments on this issue. Anyway, we proceed from the fact that this proposal, which has a clearly expressed humanitarian character, remains in force," the Russian Foreign Ministry told Izvestia.
In addition, Ukraine has not responded to Russia's proposal to organize online work in three groups.
"We are still awaiting the response of the Ukrainian side to the proposal submitted to it on July 23 this year at the third round of the Istanbul talks to form three working groups on political, military and humanitarian issues," the ministry said.
Finally, the Russian Federation did not receive a response to its idea of raising the level of delegations. This was first discussed after the telephone conversation between Putin and Trump on August 18.
— At all three rounds of the Russian-Ukrainian Istanbul talks, the Russian delegation was led by Vladimir Medinsky, Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation, whose position corresponds to that of Deputy Prime Minister. The head of the Ukrainian delegation was Defense Minister Rustem Umerov. For our part, we have stated that we are ready to raise the level of both delegations. We do not know about the reaction of the Ukrainian side," the ministry said.
Russia and Ukraine held three rounds of negotiations: on May 16, June 2 and July 23. Following the results of the last meeting in Istanbul, Vladimir Medinsky reported that the decision on the next one would be made after the implementation of the new agreements. Then he stated that all agreements on humanitarian tracks from the previous round had been fulfilled (with the exception of the return of all residents of the Kursk region to the Russian Federation).
— We assume that negotiations will continue. The date of the next round will be agreed upon when the agreements of previous meetings are fulfilled, and Kiev formulates its position on Russian proposals, including on working groups, raising the level and other issues," the Foreign Ministry said.
During the third round of negotiations in Istanbul, the Russian Federation also raised the issue of the return of Russian children remaining in Ukraine or exported to EU countries. In addition, Vladimir Medinsky reported that Russia had been given the entire list of 339 surnames of Ukrainian children and it had been fully worked out. "Some of the children have already been returned to Ukraine. Work is underway on the rest. If their legal parents, close relatives, and representatives are present, these children will immediately return home," Vladimir Medinsky said. He also noted that indefinite sanitary exchanges of the seriously wounded and sick will be continued directly on the line of operations.
Why is Ukraine slowing down the negotiation process
Kiev is delaying the negotiation process and, apparently, is developing countermeasures, since it is not satisfied with the logic of the Istanbul talks, which involves solving the entire range of issues: from political to humanitarian, political analyst Ivan Loshkarev tells Izvestia.
— For Kiev, the priority in the negotiations was and remains completely different, namely, to snatch a military truce, and maybe, along the way, resolve some issues related to the exchange of prisoners and detainees. In general, that's it. The logic of the Istanbul talks is to resolve all issues. Kiev's logic is to solve issues that only he likes, the expert believes.
It is quite obvious that Kiev's desire to delay the negotiation process is not taking place without the support of Europe.
— The Istanbul format presupposes concessions to Ukraine. The European Union doesn't really like it either. The EU and those who lead it today believe that the negotiation format should be different, and that in addition to the bilateral format of negotiations, it is necessary to return to a more multilateral one, for example, resembling the Normandy Four, as it was under the Minsk Agreements. The EU would like to participate in the negotiations more explicitly and be able to block those proposals that it finds unacceptable, that is, the Russian ones," he says.
In general, relations between Ukraine and the EU have been strengthening recently. After Donald Trump came to power, Washington began a dialogue with Moscow, including on the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict. At the same time, Brussels began to actively speak out in support of Kiev. Although Zelensky admitted on September 3 that the "coalition of the willing" to provide military assistance to Ukraine looks "theoretical" today.
The Association is forcing Ukraine's accession to the EU, including for the sake of ensuring its security. Most of the union's countries are set for a long-term continuation of the military conflict, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto emphasized after the meeting of EU foreign ministers on August 30 in Copenhagen. In addition, Lithuania proposed to start negotiations on Ukraine's membership in the association without Hungary's consent, which a priori violates the fundamental democratic principles of the European Union.
Coordination of Ukraine's security guarantees is also not without difficulties. The United States obviously intends to shift responsibility for this to Europe. Earlier, Donald Trump insisted on increasing the defense spending of NATO member countries to 5% of GDP. The US President also proposed a scheme according to which the Europeans would pay for American weapons for the Armed Forces.
So far, the United States has not reacted so clearly to the apparent slowdown in the negotiation process on the part of Kiev. It is possible that this corresponds to Donald Trump's ideas about how to conduct diplomacy, Andrei Kortunov, an expert at Valdai, tells Izvestia.
— Trump also makes a very clear emphasis on a personal meeting. Therefore, when Zelensky says that it makes no sense to negotiate with anyone but Putin, I think that this logic, in a sense, resonates with Trump," he says.
On August 19, White House press Secretary Caroline Leavitt announced that Vice President Jay Dee Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff would coordinate with Moscow and Kiev to arrange a meeting between Putin and Zelensky as soon as possible.
On August 24, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with the American television channel NBC News: de facto Zelensky is the "head of the regime," and Putin is ready to meet with him in this capacity, but according to the constitution he is illegitimate.
During a press conference in China on September 3, Putin invited Zelensky to come to Moscow if he was ready for the meeting. The Russian President pointed out that Ukraine itself can choose one form or another to ensure its own security, but it should not be done at Russia's expense. The Russian leader also recalled that Moscow had never objected to the neighboring country's membership in the EU, but not in NATO.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
