This content was published on March 30, 2022 – 2:19 pm March 30, 2022 – 2:19 pm
MOSCOW, 30 March (EFE).- Russia’s chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky today warned Ukraine that the status of both the annexed Crimean Peninsula and the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, whose independence has been recognized by the Kremlin, is untouchable for Russia.
“I would like to emphasize that the principled position of our country regarding Crimea and Donbass remains unchanged,” Medinski said in a statement on public television.
In this regard, the President of Ukraine Volodimir Zelenski last night assessed as “positive” the negotiations between the two sides, which took place in Istanbul on Tuesday.
“Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity must be guaranteed. There can and will be no compromises on sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said.
Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak said last night that Kyiv had proposed a fifteen-year period to Moscow to negotiate the status of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
As for the Donbas, three days before the start of the “special military operation” in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.
Both Putin and the separatist leaders stressed that their goal was to regain control of the entire administrative territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in accordance with the Ukrainian constitution.
Exactly, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu assured on Tuesday that the Russian army will now focus on conquering the entire Donbass.
Medinski, returning last night from Istanbul, where the fifth round of negotiations took place, stressed that “yesterday, for the first time in many years, the Kiev authorities expressed their willingness to reach an agreement with Russia.”
That is, he added: “Ukraine has shown its willingness to meet the main demands that Russia has been insisting on in recent years.”
He referred to Ukraine’s withdrawal from NATO membership, from belonging to military blocs, from having nuclear weapons and from possessing, acquiring or developing other weapons of mass destruction, as well as from absorbing foreign military bases or contingents.
In addition, he stressed, Kyiv would undertake to organize military exercises with the participation of foreign forces only with the consent of all international guarantors of its security, including eleven countries, including Russia.
“If these commitments are met, the threat of creating a NATO platform on Ukrainian territory will be eliminated,” he said.
Medinski specified that Kyiv had handed Moscow “the principles of a possible future agreement on paper.”
“The work goes on, the negotiations go on,” he said.
According to the press, Russia would have renounced demands such as the “denazification” of Ukraine and the status of the Russian language in the negotiations.
Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexandr Fomin also announced in Istanbul that Russia would scale back military activities around Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv
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