Russia promises to scale down operations; Ukraine proposes neutrality
Source: Reuters
ISTANBUL, March 29 (Reuters) - Russia promised at peace talks on Tuesday to drastically scale down its military operations around Kyiv and the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, while Ukraine proposed neutral status with international guarantees to protect it from attack. Ukrainian negotiators said they had proposed a status under which their country would not join alliances or host bases of foreign troops, but would have its security guaranteed in terms similar to "Article 5", the collective defence clause of NATO.
They identified Israel and NATO members Canada, Poland and Turkey as countries that could help provide such guarantees. The proposals would include a 15-year consultation period on the status of Russian-annexed Crimea, and could come into force only in the event of a complete ceasefire, the Ukrainian negotiators told reporters in Istanbul.
Russian Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Fomin said Russia had decided to scale down fighting near Kyiv and Chernihiv to create the conditions for dialogue. Top Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said he would examine the Ukrainian proposals and report on them to President Vladimir Putin.
The talks held in Istanbul on Tuesday were the first face-to-face meeting between the sides since March 10. Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, and has failed to capture any major Ukrainian cities after meeting fierce resistance. Ukraine's proposals were the most detailed and concrete that Kyiv has aired publicly.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-sets-ceasefire-goal-new-russia-talks-breakthrough-looks-distant-2022-03-29/
April 4 = $2.2 billion payment due - https://www.marketwatch.com/story/russia-will-likely-default-with-april-4-payment-due-of-2-2-billion-experts-say-01648317115
= new reply since forum marked as read
Ukraine is pushing the Russian military back, further and further so this gesture of scaling down is somewhat bullshit. That said I'm pretty sure Ukraine welcomes the news and "promise" to do so.
I posted this in another thread regarding what it would have taken him to do what he was supposedly trying to do (without using nukes to "cheat" ) - https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=2894918
Here is a map for comparison -
The small blue circle is around Kuwait. The red oval is around the bottom 2/3rds of Ukraine.
Putin has been attempting to take the entirety of Ukraine with perhaps somewhere south of 200,000 troops.
