Putin and Zelensky could meet soon, says Ukraine’s top negotiator
New Delhi: A senior aide to Ukraine’s president has claimed that Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky could meet soon. The head of Ukraine’s negotiating team, Mykhailo Podolyak, a key adviser to Zelensky, said on Wednesday that Moscow was scrutinizing proposals submitted by Kyiv in Istanbul which he believed could lead to a presidential peace summit.
“We can expect a presidential meeting to be held sometime soon, When is too early to tell, but it is a logistical issue,” Podolyak said.
Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said “it was positive that Ukraine had set out its position, but he talked down expectations of a summit. We cannot state that there was anything too promising or any breakthroughs, there was a lot of work to be done,”
Vladimir Medinsky, the head of Russia’s delegation in the talks this week, once again raised hopes, however, by claiming that Zelenskiy’s proposals indicated a readiness by Ukraine to reach a deal for the first time in years, adding that “if it fulfills the obligations, the threat of creating a Nato bridgehead on the Ukrainian territory will be removed”.
But later on Wednesday Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen leader whose forces are fighting in Ukraine said that Moscow would make no concessions.
“Medinsky who made a mistake made an incorrect wording… And if you think that he (Putin) will quit what he started just the way it is presented to us today, this is not true,” Kadyrov said.
The claims and counter-claims from the two capitals highlight the negotiating games being played by both sides as the war continues to rage in hotspots across Ukraine, with little sign of the bloodshed abating.
The United Nations refugee agency said on Wednesday that more than 4 million people had fled Russia’s “utterly senseless” war.
According to the UN body, 4,019,287 people have fled abroad since the start of Russia’s invasion on 24 February, exceeding its initial estimate that the war would create up to 4 million refugees. More than 90 percents are women and children.
(Vinayak)
