The head of Ukraine’s negotiating team, Mykhailo Podolyak, a key adviser to Zelenskiy, said on Wednesday that Moscow was carefully considering proposals made by Kyiv in Istanbul that it believed could lead to a presidential peace. “We can expect a presidential meeting at some point soon,” Podolyak said. “When is too early to say, but it is a matter of logistical support.” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peshkov said it was “positive” that Ukraine had expressed its position, but rejected expectations for a summit. “We can not say that there has been anything very promising or any significant progress,” he said, adding that “there is a lot of work to be done.” Later Wednesday, Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation to this week’s talks, boosted hopes again, but said Zelensky’s proposals showed Ukraine was ready to reach an agreement “for the first time in years.” adding that “If it fulfills its obligations, the threat of a NATO bridgehead on Ukrainian territory will be lifted.” Claims and counter-claims from both capitals underscore the negotiation games being played on both sides, as the war continues to rage in hotspots across Ukraine, with minimal signs of bloodshed. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Wednesday that more than 4 million people had fled Russia’s “utterly absurd” war. According to the UN body, 4,019,287 people have fled abroad since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, exceeding the initial estimate that the war will create up to 4 million refugees. More than 90% are women and children. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grady, said on Twitter that he had just arrived in Ukraine and started discussions with authorities, the UN and other partners on “ways to increase our support for the people who have been affected and displaced by him.” irrational war “. The agency said the speed and scale of the displacement was unprecedented in Europe since World War II. The United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) also said that by mid-March, 6.48 million people had been internally displaced. “Urgent, rescue assistance is needed,” the IOM said Wednesday. Prior to the war, Ukraine had a population of 37 million in government-controlled areas, with the exception of Crimea and Russia-controlled areas to the east. At talks in Istanbul on Tuesday, Ukraine proposed a peace framework under which it would remain neutral, with its security guaranteed by third countries through a treaty similar to NATO’s mutual defense commitment in Article 5. The proposals, which are intended to take effect only in the event of a complete ceasefire, included a 15-year consultation period on the status of the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow seized from Ukraine and annexed in 2014. Medinsky said Ukraine seemed ready to commit to a nuclear-free regime and abandon its constitutional ambitions to join NATO’s military alliance. He said Ukraine had also signaled that it could agree not to host foreign military bases and that it would conduct joint exercises with foreign armies only in consultation with countries acting as guarantors of a peace deal, including the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. . Russia is one. Podolyak said any agreement should be put to a referendum, which could only take place after the withdrawal of Russian troops, but, in what appeared to be a further concession, he added that this could only concern “the positions of the February 23, 2022 “. , in an obvious recognition that the soldiers will remain at least in the Crimea. The key for Kyiv is that the other four members of the Security Council – the United States, the United Kingdom, France and China – pledge to intervene in the event of a future invasion of Ukrainian territory – which Moscow has claimed to have accepted. Podolyak, who said that the owner of Chelsea, Roman Abramovich, was playing an effective role as coordinator of the talks, said: “We have submitted our proposals to the Russian party, saying that in principle it is time for a meeting at the presidential level. When this will happen is rather a matter of logistics. “The Russians need to look at our proposals and give a preliminary answer. We are now working at the level of a working group online, clarifying various points, so that the package of documents is ready “. He added: “We came to Istanbul to determine the intermediate positions in the key documents. In our group as we see it, in the Ukrainian negotiating team, we see the possibility of signing preliminary agreements and starting the process of the presidential meeting, so, maybe in two or three or four days we will have a final version that will be confirmed by the Russians. with amendments and then we can reach the next round of negotiations “. Map Moscow described the talks as “meaningful” and “constructive” and then pledged to “radically reduce” military activity around Kyiv and Chernihiv, a heavily bombed town 100 miles north of the capital, as a gesture of goodwill for ” to increase mutual trust “. in peace negotiations. Colonel Oleksandr Motyuzyanyk, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, said they saw “partial movement of some enemy units from the Kiev and Chernihiv regions.” “At the same time, there is no mass withdrawal from these areas,” he said. “The enemy withdraws units that suffered the greatest losses to make up for them. “As far as we can see, the enemy has not abandoned its efforts to occupy or at least besiege the capital and Chernihiv.” Western analysts and diplomats have noted that Russia’s offer to partially withdraw came after its advance, which was thwarted by fierce resistance and supply problems, and that Moscow had already stated that it was refocusing its military objectives on expanding its territory. was held by Russian separatists in the eastern Donbass region. Officials in both Kyiv and Chernihiv said both cities were still under heavy bombardment.
