Ever since the Russians began their unsuccessful invasion of Ukraine, they have lost tens of thousands of soldiers and have not been able to capture Kyiv. Therefore on March 29, diplomats from both the Russian and Ukrainian sides agreed to meet in Turkey for peace talks.
In what was seen as a rather productive meeting in Istanbul, both sides agreed on many promises that, in some cases, were seen as a surprise. Although talks have been ‘constructive’, one can say that there has been progress in peace talks because the Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said he believes enough peace talks have been covered to now involve the presidents of Ukraine and Russia, along with other foreign countries in the coming weeks.
Russia has promised to or at least claimed that its military will ‘drastically’ decrease its presence near Kyiv, and Chernihiv. If this does indeed happen it will signify that Russia is accepting its loss in its attempt to invade Ukraine. This will in turn make Ukraine a much stronger, more respected country while Russia will live with the shame of not being able to defeat a country that was outnumbered by 900,000 troops to 200,000.
The Ukrainians have decided to backtrack on their strong stance on joining NATO. They offered to become a neutral country, for example, Switzerland, but only if they are offered security guarantees because they obviously don’t have 100% trust in Russia. The countries that would guarantee Ukraine its defense are; Turkey, Israel, Poland, and Canada. This would be a grave mistake in my opinion because Ukraine needs to join NATO if they want to completely be free of any future Russian threat or invasion.
Among the security guarantee, the proposal would also include a 15-year consultation period on the status of the Crimean region and would come into force only if there is a complete ceasefire.
The promises that were made, although won’t end the war entirely, will help out both sides by taking a closer step toward a ceasefire and if Putin and Zelenskyy can sit at the table, face to face, then maybe we can see a complete end to this humanitarian crisis.
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