Turkey does not leave attempts to resume the dialogue between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, and also expresses its readiness to provide platforms for these negotiations, Ukrainian Ambassador to Turkey Vasily Bodnar said.
“Now Turkey does not leave attempts to resume this dialogue, they express their readiness to provide platforms for these negotiations. Today’s meeting (of the Foreign Ministers of Turkey and Russia – IF) was also aimed at finding common ground for continuing these negotiations. What was publicly stated says that they are more focused on the communication of the parties, that there is a readiness for a possible resumption, and for their part they declare their readiness to contribute to this,” Bodnar said at a briefing at the Ukraine media center on Wednesday.
He added that “so far there is no talk of any specific steps towards this, since it should be clear what conditions which side is expressing.”
“Our immediate condition is the withdrawal of Russian troops. Then the negotiations may have a chance of success and end with the signing of a certain document. Otherwise, the so-called theory of “peace in exchange for territories” does not work for us. And the Turkish side understands this very well, at least trying to find out now the position of the Russian side and help in the resumption of this dialogue,” Bodnar said.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Burbock said that dialogue between countries is always important, but now there are no platforms for communication with the Russian Federation.
“There should always be dialogue,” she said on Sunday in Berlin following an informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers, answering a question.
According to her, NATO, as a transatlantic alliance, stands for a world order based, among other things, on dialogue. But at present, she claims, there are no platforms for communication with the Russian Federation. The last platform was the OSCE format.
Burbock believes that “even this last dialogue platform was liquidated by the Russian side.”
A dialogue on international guarantees for Ukraine should be started and carried out as soon as possible, adviser to the President’s Office head Mykhailo Podoliak believes.
“It is absolutely realistic to talk about security guarantees for Ukraine from the leading powers,” he said on Wednesday, answering a question from Interfax-Ukraine about the feasibility of developing a guarantee mechanism in the face of a sharp deterioration in relations between the West and Russia.
“For example, Ukraine’s accession to the European Union can be seen as the initial element of such guarantees. But a substantive dialogue on safeguards must be initiated and carried out as quickly as possible. Our partners know exactly what this means. Now is not the time to reveal details publicly, but it is definitely the time to implement a workable safeguards model,” he said.
