Ukraine to talk with Russia about cessation of hostilities, withdrawal of troops - Kuleba

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said this during a telethon, Ukrinform reports.

"The cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of Russian armed forces from Ukraine are on the table. We need to talk, because the war continues. The war must end. It is necessary to preserve Ukrainian lives, Ukrainian cities, but to talk does not mean to surrender and therefore no one plans to surrender. We will listen to what Mr. Lavrov will say and give him a decent answer," he said.

In addition, commenting on Russia's demand that Ukraine reject its aspirations to join NATO, Kuleba noted that President Volodymyr Zelensky is talking about security guarantees now.

"Now we need to stop the war. We need to guarantee Ukraine's security now, so the president says that we need to talk about Ukraine's security guarantees now, but he did not say that we should forget about NATO as a goal," Kuleba said.

In particular, the minister stated that the issue of Ukraine's membership is at a standstill, because the promise was made in 2008, but no step forward has been taken by NATO as of 2022.

He also noted that the president's signals about Crimea and Donbas are in fact a signal of readiness for negotiations, but Zelensky is very clear about defending Ukraine, its territorial integrity: "We have a difficult situation, to put it mildly, but we need to talk."

He added that his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would be held thanks to Turkish Foreign Minister Mavlut Cavusoglu.

On March 7, Kuleba confirmed that he would fly to the Anatolian Diplomatic Forum to meet with Lavrov on March 10 if he arrives there.