Ukraine offers 15-year talks with Russia on status of Crimea

The issues of the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions and Crimea will be taken out of the main part of the international agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine and will be discussed separately.

"As for such issues as Crimea, this is a separate clause of the agreement, in which we propose to enshrine the position of Ukraine and Russia to hold bilateral talks on the status of Crimea and Sevastopol for 15 years," Mykhailo Podolyak, Adviser to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said at a briefing in Istanbul, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

At the same time, according to him, the Russian side is invited to stipulate that Ukraine and Russia will not use military or armed forces to resolve the issue of Crimea over this period.

Podolyak also informed that the issue of certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions was singled out as another clause, which should be discussed in the negotiations between the presidents of Ukraine and Russia.

As reported, Davyd Arakhamiya, head of the Servant of the People parliamentary faction, member of the Ukrainian delegation at the talks with Russia, has stated that Ukraine suggests that the UN Security Council members should join the international security guarantees treaty, while a threat response mechanism should be similar to Article 5 of the NATO Charter, but providing for no more than three days of consultations.

ol