President of rf vladimir putin said that russia can’t sign security guarantees for Ukraine without a solution on “the territorial questions” of the Crimea and Donbas, informs Interfax Ukraine news agency.
“During the negotiations in Istanbul we have reached fairly serious breakthrough because our Ukrainian colleagues didn’t connect their demands on the international security with such a notion as internationally recognized borders of Ukraine, taking off the table Crimea, Sevastopol and the Donbas republics, recognized by russia, with certain reservations,” Putin said at the meeting with UN Secretary-General António Guterres in Moscow.
The president of the rf also called the atrocities by the russian soldiers in Bucha in the Kyiv region “provocations that the russian army had nothing to do with”.
“We know who did that. And the position of our negotiators from Ukraine has changed dramatically. They moved away from their previous intentions to take off the table with security guarantees the (issue of the) territories of Crimea, Sevastopol, and the Donbas republics. They have just refused that. And in their draft agreement, presented to us, they have just mentioned in two articles that these issues have to be solved at the meeting of the heads of the states,” said putin.
“We just can’t sign up to security guarantees without solving the territorial issues with Crimea, Sevastopol, and the Donbas republics,” he added.
After his visit to the rf the UN Secretary-General will visit Ukraine. In Kyiv he will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Earlier, the President of Ukraine said that he hopes Guterres’ visit to Moscow and then to Kyiv is “about real help and not about political tourism”. Zelenskyy also uttered his expectation of full support from the UN Secretary-General. He also announced the potential Guterres’ visit to the places of Ukrainians’ torments by the russian soldiers.