Facing military setbacks, Russia begins to talk of compromise

As Russia’s military progress in Ukraine has slowed and its army has suffered some apparent setbacks, Russian officials say that their negotiations with Kyiv have shown “progress on a number of positions” and that there is “hope that a certain compromise can be reached.”

Russian and Ukrainian representatives were scheduled to talk via video link Wednesday for a third straight day, their longest round of discussions since Moscow launched its invasion three weeks ago.

The two sides are discussing “a whole range of issues regarding the size of the Ukrainian army,” Vladimir R. Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation, said in televised remarks Wednesday. He said Russia needed “a peaceful, free, independent Ukraine, neutral, not a member of military blocs, not a member of NATO.”


In Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also expressed optimism, saying that the sides’ positions at the talks were becoming “more realistic.” He also said that Ukraine “must recognize” that it would not join NATO, which the bloc itself has said is a distant prospect at best.

Before the talks resumed Wednesday, Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian negotiator, said that the two sides’ “dispositions” had changed after Ukraine had launched a counteroffensive.

Russia said that among the options on the table was neutral status for Ukraine along the lines of Austria and Sweden, which are not NATO members. Podolyak said in a statement that Ukraine wanted “absolute security guarantees,” including from partner countries that would agree to “take an active part on the side of Ukraine” in any future conflict.

Russia’s demands go beyond military matters, said Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister — including the status of the Russian language and Russian news media outlets in Ukraine.

“There are concrete formulas that are close to being agreed on,” he told RBC, a Russian business news television network.

Russia has sent mixed signals about the talks’ progress this week. While President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Kyiv was “not showing a serious commitment to finding mutually acceptable solutions,” his officials were more optimistic.

Lavrov said that there was “a certain hope that a compromise can be reached,” and Medinsky said that there had been “a certain progress on a number of positions, but not all of them.”