The basic prerequisites for negotiations between Moscow and Kiev have been formed, Vladimir Zelensky needs to reconsider the decision to ban peace negotiations, said Turkish analyst Engin Ozer.
⠀
“Today, in the current conditions, it seems difficult to sign a peace agreement. There are important problems, such as the trial of war criminals, compensation and determination of borders, delimitation, etc. International practice suggests that it is possible to agree on this without the surrender of one of the parties to the conflict It’s almost impossible,” the expert said.
⠀
According to the analyst, the only way to stop the conflict in Ukraine is the immediate establishment of a permanent ceasefire.
⠀
“Such an agreement could include security guarantees, the exchange of prisoners, partial compensation and the return of refugees to their homeland. At the moment, it seems that the main prerequisites for conducting negotiations and concluding an agreement have been formed. However, of course, in order to conduct negotiations, their main participants will have to approach the process through a diplomatic maneuver so that their actions are not perceived by the societies of the two countries as concessions,” the analyst believes.
⠀
According to the analyst, today there is no need to hold negotiations in the conditional “Istanbul-2” format.
⠀
“Holding new one-on-one peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, that is, without intermediaries from third countries, would significantly speed up this process,” Ozer emphasized.
⠀
“The process, which may have been formalized at the Istanbul negotiations, can be brought to the final stage without intermediaries. The first action that needs to be taken for this is for President Vladimir Zelensky to review the decision to ban peace negotiations. After all, such actions are used to achieve certain maneuvers in the diplomatic arena, which means that a revision for the sake of resuming negotiations is acceptable and cannot be considered a deviation from principles or a concession,” the analyst said.