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Russian President said that Ukraine had gone back on the agreements reached between the representatives of both nations during the summit celebrated in late March in Istanbul.
On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Kiev-Moscow peace negotiations have "returned to a deadlock," as Ukraine has retracted the agreements reached between both countries during the session held last March in Istambul.
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According to Putin, the Ukrainian side has refused to recognize Crime as Russian territory and denied acknowledging the Donbass Republics' sovereignty and independence. At the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia's the Far East, he said these terms were crucial to progress in peace talks.
Two weeks ago, the latest round of talks was celebrated in Istambul, where Kiev representatives presented their first draft of proposals to solve the ongoing military conflict in Europe. Vladimir Medinsky, leading the Russian delegation to the negotiations, had a cautious optimism on the talks, as there were some important issues to be agreed on, despite Kiev saying it was going to self-proclaim itself as a neutral state.
Last Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Kiev had issued a new proposed draft different from the one presented two weeks ago during the session held in Turkey. Lavrov said that the new proposal Ukraine's officials have not revealed that the security guarantees Kiev seeks to obtain from leading world powers do not include Crimea. In the meantime, Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian President, said on Friday that he considers peace negotiations the only way out of the ongoing military conflict.
Kiev has moved away from the Istanbul agreements, returned to a deadlock – Putin pic.twitter.com/K5MG3pTeYc
— Леонид (@Petrovsky_L) April 12, 2022
During Turkey's summit, the Ukrainian delegation asked for legally binding security guarantees in exchange for becoming a non-aligned country. Russia repeatedly named Ukraine's aspirations to join NATO as one of the reasons for the military campaign Moscow launched against the neighboring state last month.
On Tuesday, the Russian leader met his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, in the Russian spaceport honoring the 61st anniversary of the first human spaceflight by Yuri Gagarin, where he thanked Lukashenko for the important role played in peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
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