Podolyak: Negotiations in Istanbul sufficient to organize meeting between leaders of Ukraine and Russia

Head of the negotiating group from Ukraine, David Arakhamia, has voiced Kyiv’s conditions on security guarantees during negotiations with the Russian delegation in Istanbul with the assistance of the Turkish side, Report informs referring to Anadolu Agency.

He said that eight countries, including Turkey, can act as guarantors of Ukraine’s security.

“Ukraine wants to see UN Security Council countries as guarantors, including the UK, China, the US, France, Turkey, Germany, Poland and Israel. Other countries will also be able to join the treaty if they wish,” he explained.

Member of the Ukrainian delegation Oleksandr Chaly, in turn, noted that Ukraine is ready for neutrality if a peace treaty is agreed upon. “If we manage to consolidate the key provisions, Ukraine will fix its current status of a non-aligned and non-nuclear state in the form of permanent neutrality,” he said.

Advisor to the Head of Ukraine’s Presidential Office Mykhaylo Podolyak said that the negotiations between the delegations of Ukraine and the Russian Federation in Istanbul are sufficient to organize talks between the presidents of the two countries.

“The implementation of the decision of the agreement on security guarantees will proceed according to the following scheme: first, a referendum will be held, at which all citizens of Ukraine will express their position on this agreement, on how it should work. After that, ratification by the parliaments of the guarantor countries and the parliament of Ukraine will take place. This is a key issue. That is, we must get the support of society in order for this agreement to really be consolidating for us,” Podolyak noted.

He added that in a separate clause of the agreement, it is proposed to fix the position of Ukraine and Russia for 15 years to conduct bilateral negotiations on the status of Crimea and Sevastopol.

He noted that the issue regarding the territories of the east of Ukraine will be discussed within negotiations between the presidents of Ukraine and the Russian Federation, Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin.