Advisor to the head of OP Podolyak: Ukraine currently has a dialogue with Russia only on humanitarian issues

Author:
Oleg Panfilovych
Date:

Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Presidentʼs Office, said in an interview with "Babel" that negotiations between Ukraine and Russia are currently taking place only on humanitarian issues.

"There are no dialogues on military and political issues. Even on grain issues, there were no direct negotiations, there were dialogues through intermediaries," explained Podolyak. The adviser to the head of the Presidentʼs office stated that direct negotiations with Russia are currently impossible.

Podoliak also stated that Ukraine demands the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Mowers, to start "fulfilling his functions" and explain to Russia that the "trial" of prisoners of war is a violation of the Geneva Convention. "We are working on this. "The president listens to reports every day about what is happening to our prisoners of war," he added.

  • The last face-to-face talks between Ukraine and Russia took place on March 29 in Istanbul. Then the Ukrainian side offered the Russian Federation a draft agreement on its own security guarantees and neutral status. The document declared Ukraineʼs accession to the EU and provided for negotiations with the Kremlin regarding the fate of occupied Crimea over the next 15 years.