The head of the Russian delegation, presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, told reporters after the meeting that Moscow had offered the Ukrainian side:
“First, in order to save time and taxpayers’ money, to form three working groups within our delegations that will work online,” he RBC quoted RBC quoted Medinsky as saying. – This will be a working group on political issues, a working group on humanitarian issues and a working group on military issues, comprising relevant specialists from the military departments.”
The Russian delegation also suggested that short ceasefires of 24-48 hours be declared on the line of contact “so that sanitation teams could pick up the wounded and commanders could pick up the corpses of their fighters”.
The sides also agreed to continue the exchange of prisoners and the return of dead bodies.
The head of the Ukrainian delegation, Secretary of the National Security Council Rustem Umerov said after the talks that Kiev proposed to hold a meeting between Ukrainian and Russian Presidents Vladimir Zelensky and Vladimir Putin by the end of August, and that Turkish and US Presidents Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Donald Trump should be present.
Kiev has also said it is ready to cease fire – including strikes on critical and civilian infrastructure – and expects Moscow to do the same.
Russia’s position on the meeting between the two presidents remains the same: it can only take place to sign a full-fledged peace agreement, which is still a long way off, Vladimir Medinsky clarified. So far, the positions of the parties on the proposed memorandums are very far apart.
