Political analyst Ruslan Bortnik commented on the third round of negotiations in Istanbul and assessed whether the delegations will ever move from the humanitarian track to addressing political issues, Politeka reports.
He shared his thoughts in his blog.
According to the expert, both sides initially did not have high expectations for the third round of talks in Istanbul, but the very fact that the meeting took place indicates a willingness to keep the negotiation process going and a hope to begin a political resolution to the war. Nevertheless, he notes, the only agreement reached again was regarding the exchange of prisoners and the repatriation of the dead.
“Moscow put forward a number of proposals. First, it suggested forming three working groups on political, humanitarian, and military issues, which would operate in an online format to save taxpayers’ money—since Moscow isn’t exactly doing well financially. We’re joking, of course, but the formation of these groups is starting to resemble the Minsk negotiation process,” Bortnik commented.
According to the head of the Russian delegation, Medinsky, the expert says, the sides’ positions on the memorandums remain far apart. Russia, he continues, proposed short-term ceasefires to retrieve the wounded and the dead, while Ukraine insisted on an unconditional ceasefire—something the U.S. supports.
“Ukraine, first and foremost, was pushing the issue of direct negotiations between the President of Ukraine and the President of Russia. That was the main thrust of their agenda. The Turkish side eventually stated that the discussion had come closer to that topic, but I don’t see any significant changes compared to previous stages. Russia allows for the possibility of such a meeting, but only at the final stage, when some kind of agreements are ready to be signed—which has always been the case. Russia has never completely rejected the idea of a meeting; it has always said that, eventually, such a meeting might happen at the end,” Bortnik concluded.
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