Russia may slash military activity after 'constructive' negotiations

ISTANBUL • Russia has decided to drastically cut military activity in Ukraine, its deputy defence minister said yesterday after Kyiv's neutral-status offer during talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiating teams in Istanbul.

"In order to increase mutual trust and create the necessary conditions for further negotiations, and achieve the ultimate goal of agreeing and signing (an) agreement, a decision was made to radically, by a large margin, reduce military activity in the Kyiv and Chernihiv directions," Mr Alexander Fomin, the deputy minister, told reporters.

Ukrainian negotiators at the conflict talks in Turkey said they were calling for 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 No. 5 - and even more firmly," Mr David Arakhamia, a Ukrainian negotiator, told reporters after talks with the Russian delegation.

Poland, Israel, Turkey and Canada could be among the potential security guarantors.

Ukraine's proposed neutral status in exchange for security guarantees would mean it would not join military alliances or host military bases, its negotiators said.

The proposals would also include a 15-year consultation period on the status of annexed Crimea and could come into force only in the event of a complete ceasefire, negotiators told reporters in Istanbul.

The proposals are the most detailed and concrete that Ukraine has aired publicly.

"If we manage to consolidate these key provisions, and for us this is the most fundamental, then Ukraine will be in a position to actually fix its current status as a non-bloc and non-nuclear state in the form of permanent neutrality," said negotiator Oleksander Chaly, in comments broadcast on Ukrainian national television.

"We will not host foreign military bases on our territory, as well as deploy military contingents on our territory, and we will not enter into military-political alliances.

"Military exercises on our territory will take place with the consent of the guarantor countries."

There was enough material in the current Ukrainian proposals to warrant a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Ukrainian negotiators said, adding that they were awaiting Russia's response.

Russia said the negotiations were "constructive" and the Ukrainian offer would be transmitted to Mr Putin promptly for a response. Mr Vladimir Medinsky, Russia's chief negotiator, said Moscow is willing to consider a presidential meeting at the same time as a foreign ministers meeting to initial a preliminary deal.

Kyiv has long sought direct talks, while Moscow had resisted committing to Mr Putin's participation.

Yesterday's talks - the first face-to-face meeting between the sides since March 10 - had begun with "a cold welcome" and no handshake, Ukrainian television reported.

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich was there, to "enable certain contacts" between the two sides, the Kremlin said.

Separately, Ukrainian President Zelensky told the Danish Parliament yesterday that Europe must tighten sanctions on Russia, including by blocking trade, stopping the purchase of its oil and closing ports to Russian ships.

Speaking via video link, he reiterated that some 100,000 people were still trapped in Ukraine's southern city of Mariupol, which is encircled and being bombarded by Russian forces.

"What the Russian troops are doing to Mariupol is a crime against humanity, which is happening in front of the eyes of the whole planet in real time," he said.

REUTERS