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On February 27, Moscow and Kiev once again proclaimed their readiness to launch negotiations. On February 25, Kiev confirmed its willingness to sit on the table for talks, but refused to go to Belorussia. Finally, Ukraine has offered the Gomel region on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border as a place for negotiations with Russia. Moscow agreed. The representatives should meet near the Pripyat River.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that negotiations between representatives of Moscow and Kiev have not yet begun. According to the Ministry, the delegations are arriving at the venue.
On the morning of February 27, the Russian delegation arrived in Belarus for talks with Ukrainians, according to the previously reached agreements with Kiev. It is headed by Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky and it includes representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defense and other departments, including the Presidential Administration.
Zelensky noted that he had a conversation with Alexander Lukashenko, who assumed responsibility for the security of the Ukrainian delegation.
“During the departure, negotiations and return of the Ukrainian delegation, all planes, helicopters and missiles stationed on Belarusian territory will remain on the ground.”
Previously, Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine is ready for negotiations in any other country, but not in Belarus, because, according to his claims, military equipment was sent from its territory to Ukraine to support Russian forces. The Ukrainian leader noted that he offered Warsaw, Budapest, Bratislava, Istanbul and Baku as negotiating platforms.
According to the Israeli radio station REKA, Zelensky asked Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to mediate the negotiation process. The Presidents of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Turkey Recep Erdogan, also offered Zelensky to organize talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
The start of negotiations, which has yet to take place, is a good chance to put an end to hostilities on the territory of Ukraine, but the parties do not pin much hope on the the first round of negotiations.
For example, the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs claimed that the Ukrainian delegation will “listen to the Russians and say what they thinks about the war.”
“We will continue to defend our country, fight them in the territories they have taken control of. There is nothing wrong with negotiations if they end in peace and the end of the war, as it should be. But we will not surrender, we will not give up an inch of our territory. This is not the goal of our struggle,” Kuleba said.
