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Putin’s aide Medinsky heads Russian delegation at talks with Ukraine held via video link

On February 28, the first round of Russian-Ukrainian talks took place in the Gomel region
Russian Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky Maxim Guchek/BelTA/TASS
Russian Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky
© Maxim Guchek/BelTA/TASS

MOSCOW, March 13. /TASS/. The Russian delegation at talks with Ukraine, which are held via a video link, is led by Vladimir Medinsky, the aide to the Russian president, as it was during the face-to-face meetings in Belarus, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS.

"From our part, the delegation is still headed by Medinsky," Peskov said when asked about the participants in the Russian-Ukrainian talks held via video conference in recent days.

On Saturday, the Kremlin reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin told French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in their phone conversation about "a series of talks held between Russian and Ukrainian representatives via video conference in recent days."

On February 28, the first round of Russian-Ukrainian talks took place in the Gomel region. It lasted five hours. The second round held on March 3, also in Belarus, resulted in an agreement on humanitarian corridors for civilians. The third round took place in the Brest region, Belarus, on March 7.

On March 10, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmitry Kuleba met on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkey.

On February 24, Putin announced a special military operation in response to a request for help by the heads of the Donbass republics. Russia demands that Ukraine should be demilitarized and de-Nazified, should have a non-aligned and non-nuclear status, should recognize Crimea as part of Russia and recognize the sovereignty of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. In the meantime, the United States, the United Kingdom and some other states slapped sanctions on Russia.