Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday there was a chance his country and Ukraine could reach an agreement if the two sides are due to resume negotiations in Istanbul, Turkey.
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Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine would take place “literally today or tomorrow” in Istanbul. “And it is in our interest that these negotiations are crowned with results,” Lavrov said in an interview with Serbian media.
Moscow is negotiating to ensure that “the people of Donbass will never again suffer from the Kiev regime,” commented the head of Russian diplomacy.
“We must ensure that Ukraine stops being a country that constantly militarizes itself and tries to place offensive weapons there that threaten the Russian Federation,” he said.
“There are chances of an agreement because there is an understanding of the most serious long-term mistakes made by our western partners, although for obvious reasons they are unlikely to say it out loud.”
Russia has reason to believe that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has heard the most serious and legitimate security evidence from Moscow and is beginning to understand it, he said.
The Russian foreign minister insisted on the need to organize a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but only after the main issues have been resolved.
“This meeting will be necessary if we manage to better clarify the resolution of these fundamental issues. We have raised awareness of these issues for many years. The West has not listened to us, but now they are finally listening to us. It’s something. “Something,” the caption emphasized.
On the other hand, the spokesman for the Turkish Council Presidency, Ibrahim Kalin, confirmed on his Twitter account the agreement for a meeting “this coming week”, without naming specific dates. It is clear that it will take place in Istanbul and that it will be this week, but it has not been specified on which day it will start.
According to Ukrainian negotiator David Arahamiya, the next round will take place in Turkey from this Monday, March 28-30, while the head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinski, said the meeting will take place on March 29-30 will.