Russia-Ukraine First Round of Talks Ends

Gomel, MINA – The first round of talks between the Ukrainian and Russian delegations held on the border with Belarus ended on Monday local time.

“The results of the negotiations were not published. The talks went on for several hours and fell through twice,” Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull reported.

He added, the length of the meeting “shows that they have something to talk about.”

Negotiators from Ukraine and Russia will return to their respective capitals for consultations.

The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, said the two sides had agreed to resume negotiations.

According to Hull, Russia’s main demands in the talks were Ukraine’s neutrality, assurances that it would never join NATO and that Kyiv recognize its declared independence from breakaway areas in the country’s east.

“And you might be able to include in that recognition that Crimea was officially part of Russia after it was annexed (by Moscow) in 2014; most of the world and of course Ukraine doesn’t recognize that,” he added.

Russia’s offensive in Ukraine entered its fifth day after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered military intervention on Thursday, days after recognizing two separatist-held territories in eastern Ukraine.

The military move was met with protests from the international community, with the European Union, Britain and the US imposing various economic sanctions on the Kremlin.

Russia is increasingly isolated as its airlines are banned from traveling in European airspace, as well as Canadian airspace, and a number of its banks have been excluded from the SWIFT international banking system. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)