Russian and Ukrainian officials on Sunday delivered their most encouraging assessments to date of progress in their talks over the war in ukrainesuggesting that positive results could occur within days.
“We will not give in principle in any position. Russia now understand this. Russia is already beginning to talk constructively,” said Ukrainian negotiator and presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak in a video posted online.
“I think we will achieve some results literally in a matter of days,” he said.
The RIA news agency quoted the Russian delegate Leonid Slutskisaying the talks have made substantial progress.
“According to my personal expectations, this advance can become in the next few days a joint position of both delegations, in documents to sign,” said Slutsky.
Neither party indicated what the scope of any agreement would be.
His public comments aired around the same time. They arrived on the 18th day of the war, which started when the russian forces they invaded Ukraine on February 24 in what the Kremlin calls a special military operation.
Thousands of people have been killed and more than 2.5 million have fled the fighting. Ukraine has said it is ready to negotiate, but not to give up or accept any ultimatums.
In a tweet, Podolyak assured that Russia was listening carefully to Ukraine’s proposals. “Our demands are: the end of the war and the withdrawal of the (Russian) troops. I see the understanding and there is a dialogue,” he said.
Three rounds of talks between the two sides in Belarusmost recently last Monday, focused largely on humanitarian issues and led to the limited opening of some corridors for civilians to escape the fighting.
The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, said on Friday that there were some “positive changes” in the talks, but did not elaborate. On Saturday, the Kremlin said discussions between Russian and Ukrainian officials had continued “in video format.”