Russian President Vladimir Putin told United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Tuesday that he still believed in a positive outcome to negotiations with Ukraine, despite the continued fighting between the two countries.
“Despite everything, the negotiations continue (…). I hope we will come to a positive result,” he said during his meeting in the Kremlin with Guterres.
He said that the negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv in Istanbul at the end of March had made “a serious step forward because our Ukrainian colleagues had not linked the security requirements, of Ukraine’s international security, to a certain understanding of the internationally recognized borders of Ukraine”.
Negotiations slowed down by the Boutcha massacre
During these negotiations, kyiv had proposed an international agreement establishing countries guaranteeing its security.
In exchange, Ukraine would accept a “non-nuclear” and neutral status, renounce joining NATO, authorize foreign military bases on its territory and exclude for a time from negotiations issues related to annexed Crimea and separatist territories. of Donbass. After these negotiations, Moscow withdrew its troops to northern Ukraine.
However, the negotiations were greatly slowed down by the discovery of many bodies in the Ukrainian areas occupied by the Russian army before its withdrawal, particularly in the town of Boutcha near kyiv. Ukraine accuses Moscow of killing civilians, which the Kremlin strongly denies.
Putin claimed on Tuesday that the Russian military had “no connection” to Boutcha’s “provocation”.
The evacuation of civilians from Azovstal in question
During his meeting with the Russian leader, Antonio Guterres reiterated his call for joint work between the UN and Moscow to set up humanitarian corridors and come to the aid of civilians in Ukraine.
In a statement, the UN said that Vladimir Putin had accepted “in principle” the involvement of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross in the evacuation of civilians trapped at the Azovstal industrial site, in the besieged Ukrainian port of Mariupol.
According to this source, discussions will continue between the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of the United Nations and the Russian Ministry of Defense.