Zelensky: Ukraine ready for negotiations with Russia

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Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Saturday that he was ready for negotiations with Russia, more than two weeks after Moscow launched a special military operation in the Donbass region.

During a news conference, Zelensky said, "I welcome the signal from Russia ... I have held a hundred talks with different foreign leaders whom I gave every opportunity to mediate to allow a meeting [with the Russians] to happen."

The Ukrainian President claimed that "Russia never said that such a possibility existed." "Today I can say: yes, we are ready," he added.

Zelensky highlighted that Ukrainian and Russian negotiators meeting in Belarus had finally "started to talk about issues instead of throwing ultimatums around."

He told foreign reporters that he expected both Russia and Western leaders to give his country security guarantees.

Three rounds of negotiations have been held so far without any breakthroughs. The date and place of the fourth meeting have yet to be determined.

It is noteworthy that Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers Sergey Lavrov and Dmytro Kuleba met in Antalya in Turkey on March 10.

The foreign ministers arrived in Turkey for talks on reaching a ceasefire. This marks the first high-level contact between the two sides since the beginning of Moscow's special military operation in Ukraine.

Following the Antalya talks, Lavrov stressed that there are no alternatives to the negotiations with Ukraine in Belarus.