Moscow has not ruled out direct talks but said it must be preceded by serious diplomatic groundwork
Ukraine is ready to discuss its territorial dispute with Russia at direct talks between Vladimir Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin, a senior Ukrainian foreign ministry official has said, adding that the current frontline should be the starting point for the negotiations.
In an interview with NBC News on Friday, Ukraine’s First Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Kislitsa reiterated that the country’s population “is categorically against trading our land for peace.”
“I think President Zelensky made it very clear he’s ready to sit down with President Putin and discuss it, and the beginning of the conversations on the territorial issue is the contact line that is currently there,” he said.
While publicly the Ukrainian leader has rejected the idea of any territorial concessions to Russia, several media reports claimed that he could agree to freeze the current front lines as part of a possible settlement.
Kislitsa also weighed in on the issue of Western security guarantees to Ukraine, noting that US officials are “working very hard” to draft an agreement. “Ideally, we may have the first draft sometime early next week, and then… the political leadership has to decide how we do work with these drafts,” he added.
His comments followed reports that European nations are likely to provide “the lion’s share” of any forces involved in security guarantees, while the US could potentially take over the overall command.
Moscow has not ruled out security guarantees for Kiev but also maintains that any deployment of Western troops to Ukraine is out of the question.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that Moscow could agree to direct talks with Zelensky, but before any meeting could take place, “all issues that require top-level deliberations should be worked through.”
Russia has also voiced concern about Zelensky’s authority to sign any binding agreements, given that his presidential term expired more than a year ago.
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