Consequently, he continued, Russia decided to “radically” reduce its military activity around kyiv, the country’s capital, and in Chernigov (north).
The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinksi, assured that the negotiations were “significant”.
The Ukrainian negotiator, David Arakhamia, considered that there are now “sufficient” conditions for a summit between the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, and the Russian, Vladimir Putin.
Arakhamia called for “an international mechanism of guarantees where the guarantor countries act in a manner analogous to NATO’s 5th chapter,” which stipulates that the attack against a member country of the alliance is an aggression against the entire pact.
But the United States at the moment does not see that Russia, which invaded Ukraine on February 24, has taken concrete steps towards peace with the former Soviet republic.
“I haven’t seen anything that suggests that progress is being made effectively, because we haven’t seen any signs of real seriousness” from Russia, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a news conference in Morocco.
The British government indicated for its part that it would judge the attitude of Putin and his government “by their actions, not by their words.”
Stock markets were less skeptical and traded with strong gains of more than 3% in Berlin and Paris.