Hopes for peace disappointed: Ukraine and Russia negotiate - but with only one result

Created: 03/10/2022 13:21

Tender hopes for a quick end to the Ukraine war were dashed: the negotiations between Russia's representative Lavrov and Ukraine's envoy Kuleba yielded meager results.

Kyiv/Antalya – In the Ukraine war* there is no peace in sight, even after the highest-ranking attempt at a solution to date.

Foreign Ministers Dmytro Kuleba and Sergey Lavrov made no significant progress in their negotiations in Turkey on Thursday.

Two weeks after the start of the Russian attack on the neighboring country, it was not possible to agree on a ceasefire or further escape corridors.

The only tangible result: we should continue to talk to each other.

At the meeting, Ukraine made it clear that it wanted to talk about ways of ending the war in Ukraine.

Lavrov, on the other hand, subsequently explained that the right forum for this would be the talks that had already begun in Belarus, a common neighboring country that is closely allied with Russia.

Lavrov accused the West of exacerbating the conflict by supplying arms to Ukraine.

Ukraine negotiations: Lavrov was apparently unable to promise a ceasefire

After the negotiations, Kuleba complained that Lavrov had not been able to agree escape corridors himself, not even for the port city of Mariupol, which was suffering particularly badly.

The Russian foreign minister must discuss this in Moscow.

A 24-hour ceasefire was also discussed, but: "We have made no progress on this issue.

Because it seems that these decisions are made by others in Russia.” However, both Lavrov and Kuleba were in principle ready for further talks.

In this photo provided by the Turkish Foreign Ministry via AP, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (2nd from left) leads a three-way talk with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (left) and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba (right).

© Cem Ozdel/Turkish Foreign Ministry/AP/dpa

As a condition for a cessation of fighting, Russia is demanding that Ukraine declare itself neutral in its constitution.

In addition, Kyiv must recognize the annexed Black Sea peninsula of Crimea as Russian and the separatist areas of Luhansk and Donetsk as independent states.

Both sides had recently indicated a certain willingness to compromise *.

But Kuleba emphasized: "Ukraine has not surrendered, is not surrendering and will not surrender!" Kyiv is ready for diplomatic solutions.

According to Ukrainian sources, another attempt was to start in the morning in the war zone in eastern Ukraine to rescue people from cities in the Sumy region in the northeast via three escape corridors to the city of Poltava further west.

A ceasefire is planned regionally for this, the regional administration announced.

Almost 50,000 people escaped from the surrounded city of Sumy on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The evacuation of Mariupol, on the other hand, has been fought in vain for days.