Ukraine War: Peace Talks Begin on Optimistic Note, Russia Promises to Reduce Military Activity, Ukraine Accepts Neutrality

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, March 29: As for the first time “face to face” talks began between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul in Turkey on Tuesday to find ways to end the war, Russia said it had decided to drastically cut its military activity focused on Kyiv and Chernihiv in Ukraine.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, however, claimed that seven people were killed in a missile strike on the regional government headquarters in the southern city of Mykolayiv. Zelensky, who spoke to the Danish parliament through a translator, said Tuesday’s strike also left 22 people injured. The attack took place even as Ukraine and Russia held the first face-to-face talks raising hopes of the war coming to an end.

As the peace talks began on an optimistic note, Russia promised to drastically scale down its military operations around Kyiv and the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, while Ukraine proposed neutral status with international guarantees to protect it from attack.

Ukrainian negotiators said they had proposed a status under which their country would not join alliances or host bases of foreign troops, but would have its security guaranteed in terms similar to “Article 5”, the collective defence clause of NATO. They identified Israel and NATO members Canada, Poland and Turkey as countries that could help provide such guarantees. The proposals would include a 15-year consultation period on the status of Russian-annexed Crimea, and could come into force only in the event of a complete ceasefire, the Ukrainian negotiators told reporters in Istanbul.

Ukrainian negotiators at conflict talks said they were calling for an international agreement under which other countries would serve as guarantors of Ukraine’s security. “We want an international mechanism of security guarantees where guarantor countries will act in a similar way to NATO’s article number five — and even more firmly,” David Arakhamia, a Ukrainian negotiator, told reporters after talks with a Russian delegation.

Russian Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Fomin said Russia had decided to scale down fighting near Kyiv and Chernihiv to create the conditions for dialogue. “Given that the talks on the preparation of an agreement on the neutrality and non-nuclear status of Ukraine have moved into a practical field… a decision has been made to radically, by several times reduce the military activity in the areas of Kyiv and Chernigiv,” Fomin said. Top Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said he would examine the Ukrainian proposals and report on them to President Vladimir Putin.

Puin, however, was reportedly put off by some “conditions” laid down by Zelensky for the peace talks. Russian billionaire businessman Roman Abramovich, who is acting as Russia’s unofficial envoy in talks with Ukraine, was told by President Vladimir Putin that he will “thrash” the Ukrainians, a British newspaper reported. According to it, the incident happened when Abramovich gave a handwritten note from Zelensky to Putin. “Tell him I will thrash them,” the newspaper said in its report claiming it to be “exclusive.” As per the little details available, the note detailed Ukraine’s conditions for ending the war but no other sources confirmed the claimed development.

In a speech ahead of the talks, the Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told the delegations the time had come for concrete results and that progress would pave the way for a meeting of the countries’ two leaders. “It is up to the sides to stop this tragedy. Achieving a ceasefire and peace as soon as possible is to the benefit of everyone. We think we have now entered a period where concrete results are needed from talks,” he said. “The negotiating process, which you have been carrying out under the orders of your leaders, has raised hopes for peace.”

Ukrainian television said the meeting began with “a cold welcome” and no handshake between the delegations. Ukraine said on Monday its most ambitious goal at the meeting was to agree a ceasefire, while a senior U.S. official said Russian President Vladimir Putin did not appear ready to make compromises to end the war.

Official sources have denied a report in a section of the media that both Abramovich and the Ukrainian delegation at the peace talks suffered food poisoning. They had some troubles due to the local weather but had recovered and were well. Ukrainian sources also poured cold water to the report of being poisoned ahead of the peace talks.

Dismissing the report of “poisoning,” The Kremlin said the reports were untrue and part of an “information war”. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Abramovich was not an official member of the Russian delegation at talks with Ukraine in Turkey, but that he was present at them. Peskov told reporters on a conference call that it would become clear either on Tuesday or Wednesday if the peace talks were promising.

The West has imposed heavy sanctions on Abramovich and other Russian billionaires, as well as Russian companies and Russian officials, in a bid to force Putin to withdraw from Ukraine. Abramovich had sought to sell his English soccer club Chelsea, a process that was taken out of his hands by the British government when it blacklisted him. The super yachts linked to him, together worth an estimated $1.2 billion, have been docked at Bodrum and Marmaris in southwest Turkey since last week. The British government has ordered its first detention of a super yacht named Phi in British waters. The official sources said the 38 million pound yacht was also owned by Abramovich.

Meanwhile, Russia’s defence minister has claimed that Ukraine’s military capability was seriously degraded and it no longer has an air force. He also said around 600 foreign mercenaries have been killed in Ukraine over the last two weeks.