Turkey: Russia, Ukraine ‘close to agreement’, made progress on ‘critical’ issues

Turkey’s foreign minister says Russia and Ukraine have made progress on their negotiations and are close to an agreement to end the war, nearly a month after Russia launched an operation in Ukraine to demilitarize and de-Nazify the country.

“Of course, it is not an easy thing to come to terms with while the war is going on, while civilians are killed, but we would like to say that momentum is still gained,” Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Sunday, according to AFP. “We see that the parties are close to an agreement.”

Moscow and Kiev reported some progress in their negotiations last week, but at the same time accused each other of dragging matters out.

Cavusoglu, who traveled to Russia and Ukraine last week, said there had been “rapprochement in the positions of both sides on important subjects, critical subjects.”

“We can say we are hopeful for a ceasefire if the sides do not take a step back from the current positions.”

In an interview with Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said the sides were negotiating six points: Ukraine’s neutrality, disarmament and security guarantees, the so-called “de-Nazification,” removal of obstacles to the use of the Russian language in Ukraine, the status of the breakaway Donbass region and the status of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.

SS