The Financial Times reported on Monday that Russia is no longer demanding “denazification” of Ukraine in ceasefire talks and will allow Kiev to join the EU if it abandons its NATO membership aspirations.
Representatives of Moscow and Kyiv at the talks in Turkey on Tuesday should talk about a break in hostilities, and the draft documents should not contain three of Russia’s initial basic demands: “denazification”, “demilitarization” and legal protection of the Russian language in Ukraine, the newspaper’s sources say.
Markets are seeing some relief from these reports as they could be the first signs of progress in peace talks, although the Kremlin says there is no progress on the possibility of a meeting between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky. Recently, the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, said that any meeting between Putin and Zelensky to exchange views now would be counterproductive.
According to the US, Putin does not seem ready to compromise, and Ukrainian politicians are also undermining the chances of a big breakthrough in the negotiations.