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The first meeting between the two delegations will be held on the border between Ukraine and Belarus this Monday, since the beginning of the Russian occupation five days ago. It is not yet known what the two countries will discuss, but not much is expected from the meeting, as the positions of both sides remain completely incompatible with each other and over the last hours tensions have escalated even worse. Analysts believe that the failure of this meeting will surely be used by Russia to reinforce its pro-war propaganda.
The meeting will take place near the Prypyat River, while the Ukrainian delegation has arrived. The security of this meeting has been entrusted to the Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who is a close ally of Putin. Regarding the meeting place, the parties did not agree at first, after President Volodymyr Zelensky was proposed to the city of Gomel, Belarus, but he had refused to hold a meeting with Russia in Belarus due to the fact that it is a country very close to Russia and also responsible for the occupation of his country. He then proposed several other alternatives by finally agreeing to a border meeting.
Today’s meeting is theoretically considered a peace talk, but for various reasons is not expected to yield major results.
First of all, because the attitudes of the parties are and remain incompatible. Commenting on today’s meeting, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that his government “will not give up a single inch of its territory.” Russian President Vladimir Putin, on the other hand, had started the war by effectively denying Ukraine’s right to be a state. Moreover, as soon as the invasion began, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had stated that he would agree to dialogue with Ukraine only if the latter surrendered. In short, chances are there will be no room for a deal.
BeIn Belarus, everything is ready to host Russia-Ukraine negotiations. Waiting for delegations to arrive pic.twitter.com/WSnPMyChwg
– Belarus MFA 🇧🇾 (@BelarusMFA) February 28, 2022
Second, the fighting is continuing even at the time when the parties agreed to meet. Russian President Vladimir Putin has also ordered Russian nuclear forces to be on high alert due to “aggressive” sanctions imposed by Western countries.
Another factor that dilutes to the maximum the expectations for today’s meeting are the various statements of the parties. Ukrainian President Zelensky, who said the next 24 hours would be crucial, said he was skeptical about the meeting. He agreed to meet with the Russian delegation “without preconditions”, explaining that he was doing so to leave no stone unturned.
“I do not believe much in the outcome of this meeting, but let’s hope a solution is found. No Ukrainian citizen should have any doubts that I, as the president of the country, did not use everything, even the slightest opportunity, to stop the war.“, Wrote Zelensky on his network in Telegram.
“We are ready to sit down for talks, but not to surrender,” said Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States.
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