As peace talks end, Russian negotiator says 'meaningful' talks held with Ukraine

As Russian and Ukrainian negotiators held the first direct face-to-face peace talks in more than two weeks in Istanbul on Tuesday, Russian Chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky has said there had been a “meaningful discussion” at the talks and that Ukrainian proposals would be put to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

During a press conference, Medinsky announced that the first day of negotiations "constructive."

During the talks, Ukrainian negotiators demanded an international agreement under which other countries would serve as guarantors of Ukraine's security.

"We want an international mechanism of security guarantees where guarantor countries will act in a similar way to NATO's article number five — and even more firmly," David Arakhamia, a Ukrainian negotiator, told reporters after talks with a Russian delegation.

Responding to demand, Russia said that it will "radically" reduce its military activity in northern Ukraine, including near the capital Kyiv, AFP



reported.

"Given that the talks on the preparation of an agreement on the neutrality and non-nuclear status of Ukraine have moved into a practical field... a decision has been made to radically, by several times reduce the military activity in the areas of Kyiv and Chernigiv," Russia’s deputy defence minister Alexander Fomin said.

Meanwhile, during the talks, Ukraine proposed adopting neutral status in exchange for security guarantees at talks stating it would not join military alliances or host military bases, Reuters reported. The proposal also foresees security guarantees along the lines of the NATO military alliance's Article 5.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine entered its 34th day today, even as negotiation talks between the two sides so far have not yielded any positive results.

The meeting was arranged by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan after he held a telephonic conversation with counterpart Vladimir Putin on Sunday and agreed for Istanbul to host talks between Russia and Ukraine.