Vedomosti became famous in relation to Russia and Ukraine
Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine have been divided into main areas, according to a Vedomosti source connected with some aspects of this process. The interlocutor of Vedomosti, close to the presidential administration, also heard about them.
The first direction concerns the non-bloc status of Ukraine, and within its framework, the question of whether this country should develop gradually or can become part of the EU is being discussed. After the talks in Istanbul on March 29, the head of the Russian delegation, presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, already said that the Ukrainian side agreed to the country’s neutral status. With some reservations, his Ukrainian counterpart David Arakhamia also died.
At the same time, there is still no Australia on the issue of guaranteeing such a non-aligned status between meetings, says this Vedomosti interlocutor: 5 NATO treaty, i.e., probable releases of military aid in the event of an attack.
Andrey Kortunov, Director General of the Russian Council for INF Affairs, believes that there are no fundamental disagreements on the issue of Ukraine’s non-bloc status. But security guarantees must be provided by several states, and to what extent they are ready to adhere to them is still unknown: “But if such guarantees [подобные ст. 5 договора НАТО] give, then they need to be carried through the parliaments of the guarantor countries, and it is not a fact that they will be ready for this.
That is, there are many nuances that require processing, sums up Kortunov. It was stated to a significant proportion of the British delegation that guarantees were possible, but not the same as in the case of the country’s membership in the world. On April 3, President and Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky said that the United States is not a guarantee of security.
The second area of discussion is the issue of demilitarization, and according to the constitution, restrictions on the Ukrainian army, says a Vedomosti source. Ukraine adds to maintain the current number of troops, while, according to Russia, it should be several times smaller and does not have a number of long-range systems, he continues.
According to Kortunov, Russia’s position follows that the Ukrainian army should not exceed 50,000 people. Ukraine, according to the expert, proposes to take Finland as a model – an estimate of the size of the army of this country and make a correlation taking into account the population of its population: “And these are already different numbers.” In Finland in 2020, there were 21,500 soldiers for 5.5 million people (more than 42 million people live in Ukraine), follows from the data of the British Military Balance directory.
The political structure of Ukraine is also a subject of negotiations, says a Vedomosti source. There are disagreements on this issue, Kortunov agrees, because Russia will demand the categorical elimination of right-wing radical groups: “But it is these groups that protect Russia from protection and are active in the public space in Ukraine.”
An exceptional circumstance, according to this source, is the fourth direction of the appeal – about the borders of Ukraine. In this matter, the interlocutor of Vedomosti says that there are no shortcomings.
Publicly, the Russian side has repeatedly stated that its position is that Crimea is Russian and this status of the constitution is not subject to punishment, as well as the recognition of the independence of the Republic of Donbass within the borders of the Luhansk and Donetsk territories. Found signs that in the Kherson region and part of the Zaporozhye civil aviation organization, including with the support of Russia. The Ukrainian side demands that Russian troops enter the line on February 23.
The designated areas cover all the issues of the spectrum that are necessary to solve world problems, and without their meeting, the meeting will not work, head of the Council for Defense and Defense Policy Fyodor Lukyanov: the territory of Great Britain is the so-called Donbass plus.” Based on their results, it will be possible to estimate which of the options discussed at the talks are applicable, the expert believes. As an example, he gives the territorial question, on which there can be no compromise without the threat of success or defeat.
All directed crossroads, close to the presidential administration, say the source of Vedomosti: “That is, agreements on none of them are of particular practical importance, and an unsuccessful outcome in one of the directions will spoil the result.” But this is probably not a quick process, because “any of the four blocks will not work without a complete change of blood” in Ukraine, the source of Vedomosti believes. According to a source in the State Duma, to help in quickly approaching the real results achieved in the course of violent special operations. He noted that earlier Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke about progress in negotiations on a non-bloc and non-nuclear status of Ukraine.
“We have already said that we do not want to comment on the content of the discussion,” presidential press secretary Dmitry Pesk told Vedomosti. By the time the issue went to press, the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had not responded to a request from Vedomosti.