Behind there are already three rounds of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. Humanitarian corridors are open, but there are still many unresolved questions

On the evening of March 7, the third round of negotiations was held between representatives of Russia and Ukraine. The meeting was held in Belovezhskaya Pushcha in the house of the hunter, where the previous round was held, and lasted more than three hours. The delegations discussed the details of the work of humanitarian corridors. On March 8, from 10.00 Moscow time, the first corridors opened along the routes of Sumy - Poltava, Mariupol - Zaporozhye. The Russian Ministry of Defense also announced the corridors from Kyiv, Chernigov and Kharkov.

Russia in negotiations was represented

• ex-minister of culture Vladimir Medinsky,

• Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko,

• Deputy Head of the Ministry of Defense Alexander Fomin,

• Head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Leonid Slutsky

• Ambassador of Russia to Belarus Boris Gryzlov.

The Ukrainian side was represented

• Advisor to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine Mikhail Podolyak

• Advisor to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Alexei Armalovich,

• Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov

• The head of the faction "Servant of the people" David Arahamia.

The delegations of Ukraine and Russia during the third round clarified the details of the work of humanitarian corridors to assist people in the most affected cities, said Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine after the meeting.

“Today the third round of negotiations in Belarus took place. I would like to say: the third and the final, but we are realists, so we will say, we will insist in negotiations until we find a way to tell our people: this is how we come to the world. It is to the world. We must be aware that every day of the struggle, every day of resistance creates the best conditions for us, a strong position to guarantee our future in the world, ”the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky later said .

In turn, the head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, said that Russia's expectations from negotiations were “not justified”. “Moscow does not amuse itself with the illusion that the next time the result will be achieved,” he says.

“We arrived with a large set of documents, we have already taken specific agreements, projects, suggestions and hoped that today, regarding those points that seemed to have already been agreed on, it would be possible to sign at least the protocol, but the Ukrainian side took all these documents to study home,” Medinsky said.

According to him, the parties have long discussed the problem of humanitarian corridors, which they agreed at the last meeting, but "who" absolutely did not work due to the failure of the Ukrainian military in the places of the orders of their command and their administration. " The fourth round of negotiations will take place in the territory of Belarus in the near future.

The first humanitarian corridors

The first humanitarian corridor was the Sumy - Poltava route. At 10 o’clock in Kyiv time (11.00 Moscow time) there began the evacuation of the civilian population. Tentatively, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, 20 buses with foreign students left the sum.

The Deputy Prime Minister of the Ukrainian Government Irina Vereshchuk also spoke about the opening of the humanitarian corridor Mariupol-Zaporozhye . “I turn to the Russian Federation, we agreed that the Red Cross will be an intermediary in our negotiations with you. We warned the Red Cross, we, as the Ukrainian side, and you, as the Russian side, are ready and confirmed in writing in writing the humanitarian corridor in the direction of Mariupol - Zaporozhye and Zaporozhye - Mariupol for the evacuation of people and the import of humanitarian goods, ”she added.

According to the Russian BBC service, the evacuation corridor from the besieged Mariupol was fired. The Russian Ministry of Defense previously argued that the Ukrainian military impede the withdrawal of civilians from the city. The parties usually have guilty for violations of each other.

At the same time, the head of the regional military administration Dmitry Zhivitsky confirmed the fact of shooting at the checkpoint on the road, however, according to his information, they did not shoot at buses with people. Zhivitsky said that the Green Corridor is working from Sumy and that the situation on the highway is now calm. According to his estimates, about 1000 foreign students were already evacuated in the first wave.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said that from 10.00 Moscow time the “regime of silence” was announced and humanitarian corridors from Kyiv, Chernigov, Kharkov, Sumy and Mariupol were opened. As previously reported in the Russian headquarters for humanitarian response, to evacuate people

• They plan from Chernigov to Belarus ,

• From Sumy-to Russia or to Lviv, Uzhgorod, Ivano-Frankivsk ,

• From Mariupol - to Russia and Zaporozhye .

The first negotiations of representatives of Russia and Ukraine took place on February 28 in the Gomel region of Belarus, the second round in the Belovezhskaya Pushcha Brest region of Belarus on March 3. According to the results of the second meeting, the delegation agreed to organize a humanitarian corridor for civilians, but these plans fell off. The parties assigned responsibility for this. The Supreme Commissioner of the UN Refugees Filippo Grandi said that from February 24, two million people have already left Ukraine.

Zelensky "cooled" to NATO

Meanwhile, the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky gave an interview to ABC. The Ukrainian leader said that he was ready to discuss the problem of Crimea and LDNR.

“We can discuss this and seek compromises of how these regions live on. What is really important - how people in those regions want to live on, who want to be part of Ukraine. Therefore, the question is more complicated than simply “recognition or non -recognition” is another ultimatum, and we are not ready for ultimatums, ”he said.

Zelensky commented on the issue of Ukraine's entry into the North Atlantic Alliance.

“I cooled to this issue after we realized that NATO is not ready to accept Ukraine. The alliance is afraid of conflicting things and confrontation with Russia.

I never wanted Ukraine to kneel and pray for something. And we will not become such a country, and I will not be such a president, ”he added.

According to the Ukrainian leader, the “denazification”, which is proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, is, in his opinion, the “destruction of the nation”. Putin previously said that by “denazification” it implies the elimination of the influence of a certain radical Nazi ideology on Ukraine’s policy.