The third round of talks between the delegations of Russia and Ukraine has ended in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, the Russian embassy in Belarus reported. The meeting lasted over three hours.
The Ukrainian side was the first to speak about the talks. Adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine Mykhailo Podolyak said that there are small positive developments in improving the logistics of humanitarian corridors. “On the basic political block of the settlement, along with a ceasefire and security guarantees, intensive consultations have continued,” Mr. Podoliak wrote on his Twitter.
Later, Mr. Medinsky said that Russia’s expectations from negotiations with Ukraine did not materialize. He noted that the dialogue will continue, “but Moscow does not flatter itself with the illusion that the next time the result will be achieved.” According to Vladimir Medinsky, Russia has “put an edge” on the issue of humanitarian corridors and expects that they will start working the very next day, March 8.
“It is too early to talk about something positive. I can only say that we arrived with a large set of documents, we have already taken specific agreements, projects, proposals, and we hoped that today it would be possible to sign at least a protocol on those items that seem to have been agreed upon in principle, but the Ukrainian side I took these documents home for study,” said the head of the Russian delegation.
Russia, in addition to Vladimir Medinsky, was represented at these talks by Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko, Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin, head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Leonid Slutsky and Russian Ambassador to Belarus Boris Gryzlov.
From the Ukrainian side, Mikhail Podolyak, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, head of the Servant of the People faction David Arakhamia and adviser to the head of Vladimir Zelensky’s office Oleksiy Arestovich spoke.
The first round of Russian-Ukrainian talks took place on February 28 in the Gomel region of Belarus. The second round of negotiations took place in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, Brest Region, Belarus on March 3rd. As a result of the second meeting, the parties agreed to organize a humanitarian corridor for civilians, but these plans fell through. Moscow laid the blame on Kyiv. Today, the Russian Ministry of Defense again declared a regime of silence and planned to open humanitarian corridors from four cities of Ukraine.
Read about the course of the military operation in Ukraine in the online broadcast of Kommersant.