Moscow has apparently dropped several key demands in the painstaking Ukraine peace talks, the Financial Times newspaper reported Monday, citing “four people briefed on the discussions.”
According to the report, Moscow is now prepared to let Ukraine “join the European Union if it remains military non-aligned as part of ongoing ceasefire negotiations” and drops its NATO aspirations.
“The draft ceasefire document does not contain any discussion of three of Russia’s initial core demands – ‘denazification’, ‘demilitarization’, and legal protection for the Russian language in Ukraine,” the newspaper asserted, adding that its sources spoke “under the condition of anonymity because the matter is not yet finalized.”
The reported shift in Moscow’s position comes ahead of a new round of Russia-Ukraine talks scheduled to take place in Turkey on Tuesday. Moscow and Kiev have held three rounds of in-person talks and further contacts via a video link, yet the negotiations failed to yield any tangible result apart from the two sides finding some common ground on humanitarian corridors and evacuation of civilians from combat zones.