On Thursday, 17 March, Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and told him what the Russian side demands from Ukraine in the talks.
The BBC reported, citing İbrahim Kalın is Senior Advisor to the President of Turkey, who was present at the conversation.
According to him, the main demand of the Kremlin is the “neutrality” of Ukraine’s abandonment of the Euro-Atlantic course.
Afterwards, Putin continued to talk about “Ukraine’s disarmament so that the country could not pose a threat to Russia,” “protection of the Russian language,” “denazization.”
He said that Russia has its demands regarding the status of Crimea, the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, but Kalin did not provide specific details.
Putin allegedly said that a personal meeting with Zelensky would be required before the final agreement.
It should be reminded that the Financial Times recently published a draft agreement on the end of the war between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. According to the publication, the agreement includes Kiev’s statement on refusing to join NATO in exchange for security guarantees by the Allies in exchange for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine that entered its territory after February 24.
According to the presidential administration, this agreement reflects the position of the Russian side.