Russia and Ukraine are set to resume face-to-face peace talks on Monday.
President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the new negotiations, hoping they would bring peace “without delay”.
The new round of talks is set to begin in Turkey on either Monday or Tuesday, with Zelensky desperate to halt the ongoing operation.
France, Greece, and Turkey are hoping to launch a “humanitarian operation” to evacuate civilians within days, according to French President Emmanuel Macron.
It is worth noting that several previous rounds of peace talks failed to halt the fighting or overcome fundamental disagreements about Kiev’s alignment with the West and Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine.
“Our goal is obvious — peace and the restoration of normal life in our native state as soon as possible,” Zelensky said in a late-night video message that also set out his negotiating red lines.
“Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are beyond doubt. Effective security guarantees for our state are mandatory,” he said.
“This point of the negotiations is understandable to me and it is being discussed, it is being carefully studied,” Zelensky said during an interview with several independent Russian news organizations.
The talks could be halted after US President Joe Biden’s shock declaration that Putin “cannot remain in power.”
The impromptu statement prompted uproar in Moscow and sowed widespread anxiety in Washington and elsewhere, appearing to undermine Biden’s own attempts on a European journey to highlight a carefully orchestrated unity in favor of Kiev.
When reporters asked Biden about regime change, he responded, “No.” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also told media that was “not the objective of NATO, nor that of the US president.”
Yesterday, he called Putin “a butcher” and says he is uncertain “the Russians changed their strategy in Ukraine.”
However, neither intense diplomacy nor steadily mounting sanctions have persuaded Putin to halt his operation before achieving his goals.
Source: Agencies (edited by Al-Manar English Website)
