President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday evening, November 16, said that he received signals from partners about Moscow’s desire to conduct direct negotiations with Kyiv.
— the Ukrainian leader told reporters during the telethon.
He noted that does not want negotiations to take place “behind the scenes”, and believes the assurances of the US authorities that Washington does not negotiate on Ukraine without the participation of Kyiv.
At the same time, Ukraine should not be interested in all the points of the negotiations between the United States and Russia, Zelensky explained.
We have such an agreement. How it actually happens – we believe partners, ”quotes him TASS.
Zelensky previously called the conditions for starting a dialogue – this is “the restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine, respect for the UN charter, compensation for all losses, punishment of every war criminal and guarantees that this will not happen again.”
Recall that on October 4, Zelensky signed a decree on the implementation of the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine on the impossibility of negotiating with Putin.
The Russian leader, in turn, stated that “the Russian Federation has always said that it is open talks on Ukraine, but will not discuss the choice of residents of the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. wants to negotiate. Accordingly, according to him, “the goals of the Russian Federation will be achieved through the continuation of a special military operation” .
“A Chance for a Settlement”
Against this background, the Pentagon expects that the pace of hostilities in Ukraine will decrease in winter, and this may provide an opportunity for political settlement. With such a forecast was made on Wednesday by the head of the Committee of the Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces, Mark Milli.
“In winter there can be a lot of activity, but as usual, due to weather conditions, tactical operations will slow down a bit. If the pace of fighting really slows down, if it does, then this may or may not provide an opportunity for a political settlement, or at least for the start of negotiations for a political settlement, ”Milli believes.
The last face-to-face round of talks between the Russian Federation and Ukraine took place in Istanbul at the end of March. To conclude a peace treaty with Moscow at that time, Kyiv demanded clear security guarantees.
As Ukrainian authorities believed, the document had to be ratified by the guarantor countries , among which could be the United States, Poland, Turkey, China, France, Israel, etc. In response, Kyiv would undertake to fix permanent neutrality, non-alignment and non-nuclear.
At the same time, questions about territorial reliability Crimea, as well as the future of the Donbass republics, then it was supposed to be decided in the future, primarily by political and diplomatic means.