Belarus awaits Ukrainian, Russian delegations, posts proposed 'negotiation table' picture

By Merve Aydogan

ANKARA (AA) – Belarus' Foreign Ministry shared a photo of the proposed "negotiation table" on Monday after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced earlier that a delegation representing his country and Russian officials would meet at the border with Belarus.

Zelenskyy on Telegram account said, "We agreed that the Ukrainian delegation would meet with the Russian delegation without preconditions at the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, near the Pripyat river."

In this regard, a Foreign Ministry tweet stated: “In Belarus, everything is ready to host Russia-Ukraine negotiations. Waiting for delegations to arrive."

Zelenskyy's decision to send a delegation to meet with the Russian negotiators' team came after a conversation with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

The Ukrainian leader said his Belarusian counterpart assured him that aerial elements and troops stationed in Belarus would not cross into Ukraine.

- Donbas crisis and Russia's military intervention

Ukraine’s "Maidan revolution" in February 2014 resulted in President Viktor Yanukovych fleeing the country and a pro-Western government taking power. Russia then illegally annexed Crimea, and separatists declared “independence” in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Donbas, eastern Ukraine, both of which have large ethnic Russian populations.

Clashes erupted between separatists backed by Russia and the Ukrainian army. The 2014 and 2015 Minsk agreements, signed in Moscow with the intervention of Western powers, tried to end the conflict, but cease-fire violations continued, and approximately 14,000 people had lost their lives in the conflict as of this February.

Late last year, Russia made headlines when it deployed tens of thousands of troops on the border with Ukraine. The US said Russia was preparing for an invasion, but Moscow had repeatedly denied it.

Despite threats of Western sanctions, Moscow recognized separatist governments in Donbas and on Feb. 24 it launched a military operation into Ukrainian territory.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the operation’s aim is to protect people “subjected to genocide” by Kyiv and to "demilitarize and denazify" Ukraine. He called on the Ukrainian army to lay down its arms.​​​​​​​