The Kremlin said on Monday that Ukraine should withdraw its troops from the part of Donbas it still controls as one of the required conditions for peace.
In his statements to local media, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said that a telephone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump is expected to take place very soon.
Putin and Trump spoke on Sunday ahead of Trump's meeting in Miami with Volodymyr Zelensky. According to Peskov, the possibility of a phone call between Putin and Zelensky is not currently under discussion.
Russia currently controls about a fifth of Ukraine, including Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, about 90% of Donbas, 75% of Zaporizhia and Kherson regions, as well as parts of Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions, according to Russian estimates.
Zelensky asked Trump for security guarantees for Ukraine for up to 50 years
Volodymyr Zelensky requested security guarantees for a period of up to 50 years from Donald Trump during yesterday's negotiations at the White House regarding the peace agreement for Ukraine.
According to what had been leaked in the previous days, Washington's peace plan provided for guarantees for 15 years, however the Ukrainian president believes that this is not enough.
"I told Trump that we would very much like to consider (security guarantees) for 30, 40, 50 years. And this would be a historic decision by President Trump. The President said he would consider it," Zelensky noted, speaking to reporters, adding: "The war will end and martial law in the country will be lifted when we receive sufficient guarantees."
During the statements made by the two leaders after the negotiations, Trump emphasized, referring to the security guarantees, that "one or two issues remain outstanding," with their duration - according to Zelensky's comments today - being one of them.
Elsewhere in his latest statements, Zelensky said that Trump, before their meeting yesterday, had discussed with Vladimir Putin all 20 points of the plan to end the war.
"President Trump told me that he had a long conversation with Putin, that he went through all 20 points of the plan, one by one. It is important that we are all on the same page and that they discussed this document and not some other documents. He said that Putin is ready. I don't want to go into details now," Zelensky noted.
At the same time, according to him, he emphasized to the US president that this is not the first time that Putin has declared one thing, but in practice he does completely different things. "It is important that words match actions," Zelensky emphasized.
In addition, Zelensky said that the 20-point peace plan to end the war should be put to a referendum in Ukraine, adding that a ceasefire of at least 60 days is needed to hold such a referendum.
Regarding the possibility of a meeting with Russia, the Ukrainian president noted that it would only be possible after Trump and European leaders agree on a peace framework proposed by Ukraine to end the war.
Ukraine and the United States have a common position on the need for a diplomatic solution to the war, but if Russia refuses to sign a peace agreement, international support for Ukraine will remain, Zelensky said elsewhere in his remarks.
"There is no alternative to peace. We believe, together with the Americans, and here we have a unified position, that we must diplomatically end the war, put pressure on Russia. Otherwise, the war will continue. Of course, if the war continues, the Americans will continue to help Ukraine together with the Europeans. We are defending ourselves in this war, we are fighting. We are not aggressors," the Ukrainian president said.
In other respects, the American president emphasized that "we have made significant progress, we have covered over 95% of the issues. We are very close to an agreement - we are much closer than ever before, without this meaning that there is a definitive agreement. If everything goes as it is today, then in a few weeks the war will be over."
On the same wavelength is Zelensky, who said that "we almost reached 100%."
Source: protothema.gr
