A session of negotiations by videoconference between Russia and Ukraine will be held on Monday, confirmed Sunday evening Mykhaïlo Podoliak, a negotiator and adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Earlier in the evening, the spokesperson for the Russian presidency, Dmitry Peskov, announced that this exchange would be held on Monday by videoconference.
“A negotiation session will take place on Monday to summarize the preliminary results” of the talks, he wrote on his Twitter account.
“Negotiations are continuing without interruption by videoconference.
The working groups are constantly at work.
A large number of problems require constant attention,” said Mykhaïlo Podoliak.
Again.
Negotiations go non-stop in the format of video conferences.
Working groups are constantly functioning.
A large number of issues require constant attention.
On Monday, March 14, a negotiating session will be held to sum up the preliminary results…
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) March 13, 2022
A Russian negotiator said on Sunday that, overall, the talks were progressing.
“If we compare the position of the two delegations between the start of the negotiations and now, then we see significant progress,” said Leonid Slutsky, an MP who was part of the Russian delegation who recently met with Ukrainian negotiators in Belarus.
"My personal expectation is that this progress will lead very soon to a common position between the two delegations and to documents to be signed," he added, quoted by Russian news agencies.
Intensifying talks
Since the start of Moscow's military offensive on February 24, three rounds of talks have taken place in Belarus.
They were mainly focused on creating humanitarian corridors for civilians.
On Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministers Sergei Lavrov and Ukrainian Dmytro Kouleba emerged from discussions in Turkey without announcing tangible progress, but stating that the two countries were willing to continue dialogue despite differences.
On Sunday, Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podoliak reiterated on Twitter that Moscow had stopped issuing "ultimatums" to Kiev and started to "listen carefully" to Ukrainian proposals.
Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that Moscow had adopted a "fundamentally different" approach to these negotiations.
His Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin said on Friday that he had seen "positive progress", without further details.