In an attempt to end the war that has raged in Ukraine since the Russian invasion more than a month ago, new negotiations began on Tuesday in Istanbul, Turkey. Ukrainian forces claim to resist Russian assaults on major cities and even to have regained ground, such as at Irpin, near the capital Kyiv. On Monday, the country’s authorities were worried about a worsening situation in the besieged port of Mariupol, where at least 5,000 people have already died.
Opening of talks
Russian negotiators arrived in Istanbul on Monday, where a previous negotiating session had already taken place on March 10, at the level of foreign ministers, but had not resulted in any progress. The discussions then continued by videoconference. One of the important points of the negotiations concerns “security guarantees and neutrality, the nuclear-free status of our state”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Russian media on Sunday. This point “is being studied in depth” but it will necessitate a referendum and security guarantees, he warned, accusing his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and his entourage of “draging things out”.