Alwaght- Moscow and Kiev are now in the closet point to an agreement in the ongoing talks, getting their positions on Ukraine’s potential status “as close as possible,” said Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation, on Friday.
They have been discussing the Russian demands, among them Ukraine's neutral status.
“The topic of neutral status and non-accession of Ukraine to NATO is one of the key issues of the negotiations. This is the issue on which the parties have brought their positions as close as possible,” Medinsky stated. “Then details begin relating to what security guarantees Ukraine receives in addition to the already existing in case of its refusal to join the NATO bloc.”
Other demands, like demilitrization and "denazification" of Ukraine, however, remain a debate topic. The delegations are only "halfway" into finding common grounds on the former issue, Medinsky revealed, while the situation with the latter remains “rather strange,” with Kiev continuing to deny the very existence of neo-Nazis in the country, according to RT news of Russia.
“Ukrainian colleagues believe that there are no Nazi formations in Ukraine,” said the Russian official.
The two countries held several rounds of talks since Russia started its "special operation" in Ukraine on February 24. The talks made no tangible progress as, except for a opening humanitarian corridors for evacuation of civilians caught in crossfire.
The Russians accuse the West, especially the US, of handling the Ukrainian negotiation team.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an attack on neighboring Ukraine last month in an operation he said was to protect people from Ukrainian attacks in the two breakaway regions of Dontesk and Luhansk he recognized as independent republics three days before conflict.
