Russia and Ukraine say ‘positive outcome’ by peace talks within days – World News

Both Ukraine and Russia seem more optimistic recently when it comes to ongoing peace talks that could bring the war to an end but Ukraine has promised not to surrender to Vladimir Putin’s demands.

Peace talks between Russia and Ukraine are said to be progressing like never before, with both sides offering their most positive assessments.

The Russian negotiating delegation even went so far as to suggest that it could produce positive results in the coming days.

But it’s not clear if this was an attempt to pressure Ukraine or to see it as an aggressor.

Ukraine says it is ready to negotiate an end to the bloody invasion of its country, but will not surrender or accept any ultimatum.

“In principle, we will not give in on any position,” said Ukrainian presidential adviser and negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak in a video posted online.

“Russia now understands this. Russia has started talking constructively,”

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In other good news for peace talks, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said Russia was ready to engage in substantive negotiations.

These negotiations could end a conflict that has left thousands dead and more than 2.5 million people fleeing.

“I think we will literally hit some results in the next few days,” he said.

The RIA news agency quoted a Russian delegate, Leonid Slutsky, as saying that the talks had made significant progress.

“According to my personal expectations, this progress may develop in the coming days into the joint position of both delegations, into documents to be signed,” he said.

Neither party said what the scope of any agreement might be.

Their public opinion came at almost the same time, on the eighteenth day of the war.

In a tweet, Podolyak said Russia is listening carefully to Ukraine’s proposals.

“Our request is – end the war and withdraw from the [Russian] army. I see understanding and have a dialogue. ”

This happened almost a week ago, the main Kremlin spokesman stated that Russia is ready to suspend military activities “for a moment” if Kyiv meets a list of its conditions.

These include unrealistic demands such as the official ceding of Crimea to Russia and the recognition of the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Lugansk as independent states.

He said that “we can discuss and find a compromise on how these territories will survive” before adding that “we are not ready to surrender”.

So far there have been three rounds of negotiations between the two sides, held in Belarus.

The most recent took place last Monday and focused on humanitarian issues and resulted in the limited opening of some corridors for civilians to escape the fighting.

However, in the days since, there have been reports of the Russian military violating this agreement and opening fire on civilians trying to flee along these routes.

On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that there had been some “positive changes” in the talks, and a day later, the Kremlin said talks between the parties continued “in the form of video “.

There is also disagreement between the countries over whether talks will take place today.

The Kremlin said the next round of talks would take place on Monday, but Ukraine said it would talk today about the besieged city of Mariupol.