Ukrainian President declares readiness to negotiate with Russia
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed his readiness for negotiations with Russia. He asked Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to convene peace talks in Jerusalem.
Ukrainian leader hopes peace talks will bring real results
"The Ukrainian and Russian delegations will discuss certain issues. They will talk about some things but will not throw ultimatums at them," Zelensky said on March 12 at a press conference with foreign media.
 |
| Ukrainian President Zelensky. Photo: Tass |
The Ukrainian leader also said that high-level talks between his country and Russia should be held on neutral territory, naming Israel as a potential host for such talks.
"We spoke with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and I said that it is not appropriate to hold talks in Russia and Belarus at the moment. I am not talking about expert-level meetings, I am talking about meetings between leaders. I think that Israel could be such a place and perhaps the place is Jerusalem," Zelensky said.However, the Ukrainian president said that if this outcome is successful, Ukraine will need "certain security guarantees" that the ongoing conflict will be settled not only from Russia but also from Western countries. Israel could also act as a guarantor, Mr. Zelensky commented.
A high-level meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers was held in the Turkish city of Antalya on March 10. But the talks did not yield any significant results, with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba calling the talks "difficult" while Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Ukrainian officials "always want to replace the practical implementation of agreements with the creation of new forms"./.
