Negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow are inevitable. This was announced on June 15 by French President Emmanuel Macron.
“The day will come when we will help Ukraine survive <...>, when a ceasefire is established, we will have to start negotiating. President of Ukraine [Владимир Зеленский] and members of the government will have to negotiate with Russia,” he said at a press conference with his Romanian counterpart Klaus Iohannis.
The French leader noted that representatives of European countries that day will also be present at the negotiating table to act as guarantors of security.
The day before, Yury Ushakov, Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation for International Affairs, said that holding a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelensky requires careful preparation and certain conditions. He noted that there had been no progress in the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine after the transfer of the draft agreements by Moscow.
At the same time, Zelensky said that his country “does not have time for negotiations that will not bring anything.” He also noted that time in the current conditions plays on Russia, and not on Ukraine.
Prior to this, on May 17, Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko announced Ukraine’s de facto withdrawal from the negotiation process. Moscow has repeatedly pointed out that the Ukrainian side is trying to drag out the negotiation process, and in the end completely abandoned its proposals and withdrew from the negotiations.
Russia launched a special operation to protect the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) on February 24. It was preceded by an aggravation of the situation in the region, an appeal by the leadership of the Donbass republics to the Russian Federation with a request for help, and the subsequent recognition by Russia of the independence of the DPR and LPR.
Kyiv has been conducting a military operation against the residents of Donbass, who refused to recognize the results of the coup d’état in Ukraine, since 2014.
For more up-to-date videos and details about the situation in Donbass, watch the Izvestia TV channel.
