The deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitriy Medvedev, has said that the purpose of the Russian delegation’s participation in the meetings with Ukrainian representatives in Istanbul is to ensure Russia’s victory rather than to achieve peace in the war with Ukraine.
“The talks in Istanbul are needed not for a compromise peace on unrealistic conditions invented by someone, but for our speedy victory and the complete destruction of the neo-Nazi power,” Medvedev wrote in a telegram.
He added that “this is the meaning of the Russian memorandum” published yesterday.
The second round of meetings between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul did not end with a truce agreement, even though the Ukrainian delegation had proposed an unconditional ceasefire and Russia was to respond to the proposal in Istanbul.
The Russian delegation handed its memorandum to Ukraine only at the Istanbul talks on 2 June, and Kiev will now study the Russian proposals, Ukrainian representatives said.
Russian state news agencies released the text of the Russian document on the evening of 2 June, which contains Moscow’s proposals with ceasefire conditions, Russia, in particular, offers Kiev to hold elections and then sign a peace treaty.
Russia also demands the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Zaporizhzhya, Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson regions and international recognition of these four regions and Crimea occupied back in 2014 as Russian.
Also in the text of the “memorandum of the Russian Federation” there is a demand for Ukraine’s neutrality, which includes refusal to join military alliances and a ban on the deployment of foreign formations on the territory of Ukraine.
According to Moscow’s version, the Russian language should become official in Ukraine.
The document also contains other demands, including the lifting of restrictions on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is in prayerful unity with the Moscow Patriarchate.
According to Reuters, Ukraine has put forward a number of its proposals for the talks in Istanbul, among them the absence of a commitment to have a neutral status and non-recognition of the occupied territories as Russian.
Ukraine also insists on an unconditional ceasefire. This is also insisted on by the United States, which is the initiator of the talks between Ukraine and Russia, although Moscow does not agree to it.
United States President Donald Trump said on 28 May that he “will have an answer in a fortnight” whether Russian leader Putin really wants to end the war in Ukraine.