Russia’s top negotiator in talks with Ukraine, Vladimir Medinsky, said on Sunday that it is too early to speak about a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin that is planned to be held in Turkey, reports TurkicWorld to the reference DailySabah.
Medinsky, who led the Russian delegation in Tuesday’s talks in Istanbul, Turkey, said “there is still a lot of work to do” to finalize a draft agreement before Putin and Zelenskyy could meet.
Speaking Sunday in remarks carried by the Interfax news agency, Medinsky reaffirmed that the parties reached a tentative agreement on the need for Ukraine to adopt a neutral status and refrain from holding foreign military bases in exchange for international security guarantees.
Asked about Ukrainian negotiator Davyd Arakhamia’s claim that Moscow’s negotiators had informally agreed to most proposals by Ukraine during the talks in Istanbul this week and the two presidents could discuss the draft deal, Medinsky said he doesn’t share Arakhamia’s optimism. He said the talks will continue online Monday.
"Our task at the moment is to work out the final version of the documents and outstanding issues to enable an eventual meeting of the presidents," Arakhamia said. Should the meeting materialize, he said, it would likely be held in Turkey, Ankara or Istanbul.
