Russia and Ukraine have made significant progress on the tentative peace plan, which includes ceasefire and withdrawal of Russian forces if Kyiv maintains neutrality.
According to a report in Financial Times, Ukrainian and Russian officials discussed the 15-point draft peace deal for the first time on Monday. The deal reportedly involves Ukraine giving up on its plan to join NATO and ensuring that it does not host foreign military bases from US and other NATO countries.
Though the two countries said that they have made progress on the terms of the deal, Kyiv remained sceptical of Russia as this could buy it more time to regroup its forces and resume its invasion.
A report in AFP said that Ukraine has rejected the proposals put forward by Russia. The agency quoted a Ukrainian negotiator stressing that the country was at war with Russia and called on Ukraine’s allies to underwrite its security.
In the past 48 hours, Ukrainian officials have sounded more positive about the chances of a peace deal while warning that significant differences remain.
On the other hand, Putin showed no sign of compromise adding that Moscow would achieve all of its war aims in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Russia had said neutrality proposals along the lines of Sweden or Austria were being discussed in talks with Ukraine while indicating it could be a compromise.
Kremlin’s lead negotiator Vladimir Medinsk had said the talks were “slow and difficult” and that Russia wanted peace “as soon as possible.”
The report also quoted a Russian source saying that if both the parties accept the proposed settlement, then both the two sides could declare victory in the war.
“Every side needs a win,” the Russian source reportedly said. “He needs to be able to sell it to the people. Putin can say that we wanted to stop Ukraine joining NATO and putting foreign bases and missiles in its territory. If they do that, he can say, ‘I got it,’” he added.
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