(UnitedVoice.com) – Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and has been fighting in the nation ever since. Thousands of people have died, infrastructure has been destroyed, and countries have spent billions on the war effort. Both sides have now signaled they are open to negotiating.
On Wednesday, July 24, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba visited China. He signaled that Kyiv was ready to begin negotiations with the Kremlin. However, he made it clear that Ukraine was not willing to give up its sovereignty. Kuleba said the country’s territorial integrity must be respected and said that he’d seen no signs Russia was willing to do that.
Kuleba spoke to the press after his meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. He said that he made it clear to China that there would not be any “agreements about Ukraine without Ukraine.” He also reiterated the need for other countries to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty.
The Ukrainian foreign minister declared Ukraine will negotiate when Russia is ready to do so “in good faith.”
The following day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov spoke to the press and said his government was “generally open to the negotiation process” but said he needed to know if Ukraine was ready. He also stood firm that the Kremlin had certain goals that it wanted to achieve.
One concern Peskov said there was about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s grasp on power. The president has refused to hold an election. He and his Western allies have said the political rules that are usually in effect during peacetime don’t apply during the war.
Peskov said there was a “general problem with Zelenskyy’s legitimacy,” but there are also concerns that negotiations between the two wouldn’t be legal because of those issues. He said there are a lot of issues that need clarification before talks can begin.
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