ANTALYA, March 10. /TASS/. The Ukrainian side at talks in Belarus stated that it would soon provide a specific response to Moscow’s written proposals, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said following talks with his Ukrainian and Turkish counterparts Dmitry Kuleba and Mevlut Cavusoglu on Thursday.
"We reiterated to our colleagues that during the last round of talks in Belarus the Russian side presented extremely specific considerations, already as a draft of a legal document. And the Ukrainian side, having taken these proposals to be worked through in Kiev, assured that it would provide a specific response to them in the near future," the Russian top diplomat said.
"We want to have a serious conversation at the Belarusian venue, without doing away with it with some formal paperwork, coordinate those things that, by mutual acknowledgment, should be resolved within the context of the comprehensive settlement of the Ukrainian crisis and within the context of ensuring security on the European continent with unconditional consideration of the interests of all countries without exception," Lavrov emphasized.
The third round of the Russian-Ukrainian talks held in Belarus on March 7 did not bring the desired results, the representatives of both Moscow and Kiev stated. Both sides expressed readiness to continue their meetings and noted a certain progress on the issues of humanitarian corridors that still weren’t launched on Monday. The sides have not disclosed any specific dates or locations of future meetings.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in order to protect people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories.