Ukraine wants eight states as guarantors for deal with Russia

David Arakhamia from the Ukrainian delegation for peace talks has declared Ukraine wants eight countries, including Turkey, as guarantors in an agreement with Russia.

After peace talks yesterday in Istanbul, Arakhamia reported this to the media.

Meanwhile, Mykhailo Podolyak, the Ukrainian chief negotiator and adviser to President Voldymyr Zelensky, said the Crimea will be the issue of a particular part of negotiations with Russia, writes Anadolu, broadcast Klankosova.tv.

Russian delegation head Vladimir Medinsky told reporters outside the Dolmabahce presidential office that the talks in Istanbul were “infrastructure”.

Medinsky also said the presidents of the two countries could meet when a draft of a peace treaty is adopted.

The first day of a new round of two-day peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, mediated by Turkey, ended yesterday.

Before the start of talks in Dolmabahce, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated his call for a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, until the Russian war in Ukraine has continued for more than a month.

We believe that only from one peace there will be no losers. The duration of the conflict is not in anyone's interest”, Erdoğan said at the opening of the meeting between the two delegations.

Yesterday, Erdogan said telephone talks with his Ukrainian and Russian counterpart are continuing in <x0-> favourable direction”.

Before peace talks in Istanbul, the heads of Ukrainian and Russian delegations held a face-to-face meeting.

“Delegations are working parallelly across the spectrum of controversial questions”, Podolyak wrote on Twitter, distributing a photo from the meeting.

These talks include Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. He held talks in Moscow and Lviv earlier this month in an effort to mediate between the two countries.

According to American media, the Russian oligarch was not included in the US sanctions list due to his efforts as mediator.

Earlier, the Wall Street Journal claimed Abramovich along with Ukrainian peace negotiators suffered an alleged poisoning in Kiev, while the Ukrainian side denied the accusations, stressing that negotiators are working normally.

Ukraine names “negociata difficult for peace”

As the delegations went to a lunch break, Podolyak on social networks wrote: “Granci, the ceasefire, effective decisions for humanitarian corridors and humanitarian convoys, as well as respect of the rules and customs of war by the parties. Hard negotiations for peace in our country. Now in Istanbul”

Several round of talks between Russia and Ukraine have been held in Belarus, including one through video conference on March 14th, but no concrete results have been achieved so far.

Turkey was in world headlines on March 10th for hosting Russian and Ukrainian diplomatic chiefs in the southern town of Antalya, the highest-level meeting of both sides since the start of the war on 24 February.

Even though the parties failed to reach a ceasefire agreement, they agreed to continue negotiations on the conflict.

Russia's fight against Ukraine has faced international penalties, with the European Union (BE), the US and the United Kingdom, among other things, implementing severe financial sanctions on Moscow.

According to UN estimates (OKB), at least 1,151 civilians have been killed and about 1,850 others have been injured since Russia launched the fight against Ukraine on February 24th, but it is stressed that the actual figure of victims is much higher.

The UN Agency for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that more than 3.9 million Ukrainian refugees have also fled to neighbouring countries, while millions of others have been displaced within the country.