President Vladimir Madinsky (third from right), who is leading the Russian delegation to negotiate an armistice with Ukraine, meets with reporters at a summit meeting in the Brest region, Belarus, on February 2, 2019. Brest | AFP Yonhap News
Russia and Ukraine have agreed to open a humanitarian corridor for civilian evacuation and a ceasefire around the corridor. However, some are concerned that Russia could launch a large-scale military attack if the civilians are evacuated through such an agreement.
According to the AP and AFP news outlets, the Russian and Ukraine peace negotiating delegations reached an agreement at the second peace talks held in the Belvesh Forest, Belarus on the 3rd (local time), and decided to hold the third meeting soon.
After the meeting, Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the Ukrainian presidential office, who led the Ukrainian negotiating team, said, “We discussed the humanitarian aspect intensively because many cities are under siege. We have agreed to jointly provide a humanitarian avenue for delivery.” “While evacuations are taking place in the humanitarian corridor, a temporary truce may take place. The ceasefire will only be observed where humanitarian routes have been opened for evacuation,” he added.
Ukraine and Russia will soon establish special liaison and coordination channels for the operation of humanitarian channels. The third meeting was agreed to be held next week.
President Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation, said the results of the second round of negotiations with Ukraine were ‘great progress’, while Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the International Affairs Committee of the Russian House of Representatives, said the two delegations could proceed with several more negotiations in the future. told He said, “The political issues discussed in the second round of negotiations will require one to several rounds of negotiations (for resolution),” he said. “The third round of negotiations will be held in the near future. I think this will also be held in Belarus,” he said.
Interfax news agency said the third round of negotiations would take place early next week, citing its own source familiar with the negotiations. Regarding the humanitarian pathway agreement, some predicted that, as it did in the Syrian civil war, once Russia evacuates civilians through the agreement, a massive military strike could annihilate Ukrainian soldiers in the region.
