A neutral Ukraine key to deal, Russian negotiator says as talks continue

Ukraine could become an officially neutral country with its own military, along the lines of Sweden or Austria, as a compromise to help find a diplomatic solution to the three-week-old conflict that has claimed thousands of lives, the Kremlin official who leads Russia’s delegation to the talks said Wednesday.

Vladimir Medinsky, Moscow’s top negotiator, said the preservation of Ukraine’s neutral status and the size of its military are topics under consideration as the two sides were holding a third straight day of talks.

“All these issues are being discussed at the level of the leadership of the Russian and Ukrainian defense ministries,” Mr. Medinsky said, according to Tass, the official Russian news agency.

The example of Sweden, which cooperates with NATO but has never been a formal member of the Western military alliance, “is a variant that is currently being discussed and which could really be seen as a compromise,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the RIA news agency.

Kyiv has apparently rejected Russia’s proposal of a “Findlandization” of Ukraine, however. Mykhailo Podolyak, Ukraine’s top negotiator, said any talks to end fighting must include outside security guarantees to Kyiv in any cease-fire deal, according to the English-language Moscow Times newspaper.

“Ukraine is now in a direct state of war with Russia. Consequently, the model can only be ‘Ukrainian’ and only on legally-verified security guarantees,” Mr. Podolyak said, the Moscow Times reported.

The Russian delegation said key issues for them include the status of Crimea and Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, along with the status of the Russian language and the rights of Russian-speaking people inside Ukraine.

Even as Russian forces press a deadly bombing campaign on Kyiv and other major cities, Russian officials have said they see progress in the talks as Moscow’s hopes for a quick military victory have faded.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Russia’s RBC News Wednesday, “The negotiations are not easy for obvious reasons, but nevertheless there is hope of reaching a compromise.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who appealed to a joint session of Congress Wednesday for more U.S. military aid and support to fight off the Russian invaders, also said Wednesday that the direct talks with Russia on ending the war “already sound more realistic.” The Ukrainian leader in recent days has said Kyiv may have to reconsider its hopes of joining NATO — a key red line for Russian President Vladimir Putin — as the price of ending the Russian operation.

“Any war ends with an agreement,” Mr. Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address to the nation.

Mr. Lavrov said there were “no obstacles” to a direct meeting between Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelenskyy, but said such a meeting would only be held to ratify a specific agreement to end the war.