LONDON (Reuters) – A neutral Ukraine but still having its own army, on the model of Austria or Sweden, is a compromise solution considered in talks with Russia, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.
“It is a variant which is currently being discussed and which could really be considered as a compromise”, said Dmitri Peskov, spokesman for the Russian presidency, quoted by RIA.
He was reacting to remarks made earlier by the main Russian negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, who declared on public television: “Ukraine proposes an Austrian or Swedish version of a neutral demilitarized state but at the same time a state with its own army. and its own navy.”
Ukraine has not explicitly stated that it is ready to discuss neutral status. She says she is ready to negotiate an end to the war but not to accept ultimatums from Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky said on Tuesday that Ukraine was ready to accept security guarantees from Western countries even if it meant giving up on its long-term goal of NATO membership.
Russia refuses that Ukraine join NATO one day. It considers this prospect to be a threat to its own security, which is one of the justifications put forward for its current military intervention in Ukraine, which it presents as a “special operation”.
(Report Guy Faulconbridge, French version Bertrand Boucey, edited by Nicolas Delame)
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