Interfax Ukraine news agency quoted Ukrainian negotiating team member Davyd Arakhamiya on Saturday night as saying that Russia had indicated that documents for a draft peace treaty had progressed enough to allow direct consultations between the presidents of both sides. countries.
Russia basically accepted Ukraine’s position, with the exception of the position on Crimea, he said. While Russia considers Crimea’s status to have been clarified as a result of the 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula in violation of international law, Kiev wants to agree to a 15-year review phase. The other points concern Ukraine’s neutrality and its renunciation of foreign military bases, in exchange for international security guarantees from several countries, such as Israel, Turkey, Canada and Poland.
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Ukraine War: How Powerless Is the West?
Kremlin: Says “It’s Not Easy”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday that Russian-Ukrainian negotiations “have not been easy”. But it is important that they continue, quoted the agency Ria Peskow. Russia suggested the continuation of negotiations in Belarus, which Ukraine rejected. The latest round of talks took place in Turkey earlier this week.
“Invader-free Kiev region”
According to the government, the Ukrainian army has regained full control of the region around the capital Kiev. “Irpin, Bucha, Hostomel and the entire Kiev region have been liberated from the invaders,” Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar wrote on Facebook on Saturday.
In recent days, Russian troops have withdrawn from the suburbs of Irpin and Bucha, northwest of Kiev, after their failed attempt to besiege the Ukrainian capital. The suburbs were seriously damaged in weeks of fighting between the Ukrainian army and Russian troops.
280 dead after the Russians left
According to Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk, after the Russian army withdrew from Bucha, 280 people had to be buried in mass graves because the city’s three cemeteries were still within reach of the Russian military. The streets of the small town are littered with dead bodies, Fedoruk told the AFP news agency.
AFP journalists in Bucha saw at least 20 bodies lying on a single street. The small town was devastated by Russian attacks. Apartment buildings were damaged by artillery fire and wrecked cars were seen on the streets.
Russian attacks shift east
In Ukraine, Russian attacks appear to be moving further and further east. Russian troops are likely to have withdrawn around the capital Kiev.
Russia Deploys Troops East
The Ukrainian government spoke on Saturday of a “rapid withdrawal” of Russian troops in the north of the country. The attackers would retreat in the Kiev and Chernihiv regions, said Mikhailo Podoliak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The Russian army now wants to “retreat to the east and south and maintain control of large occupied areas”.
Thousands fled cities in distress
Thousands of people managed to escape embattled cities on Saturday, according to Ukrainian sources. Deputy Prime Minister Irina Wereschuk said 765 civilians had left the southeastern port city of Mariupol in their own vehicles.
Nearly 500 civilians fled the city of Berdyansk. The purpose of the people of both cities is Zaporizhia. In addition, ten buses started in Berdyansk. People were also rescued from cities such as Sieverodonetsk and Lysychansk, in the Luhansk region in the east of the country. “We continue to work,” said the deputy prime minister. The Red Cross convoy, which has been denied access to Mariupol for days, is still waiting to be able to bring urgently needed medicine and food into the city – and get people out of town by bus.