Russia today promised at peace talks to drastically scale down its military operations around Kyiv and the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, while Ukraine proposed neutral status with international guarantees to protect it from attack. Ukraine's top negotiator declared Tuesday that enough progress had been made at talks to resolve the conflict with Russia to enable a meeting between the presidents of the two countries.
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World oil prices dived and European equities rallied today as apparent progress in peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv sparked hope of an end to the Ukraine conflict. "News coming from Turkey is looking increasingly promising, from the significant progress claimed by both sides to reports of Russia pledging to sharply reduce military operations," OANDA foreign exchange platform analyst Craig Erlam told AFP.
Europe's benchmark Brent crude and New York's WTI sank by about 6.5 percent as traders eyed easing Russian oil supply fears amid face-to-face Istanbul talks aimed at resolving the nearly five-week-old war.
Europe's major stock markets jumped higher, with Frankfurt soaring 3.5 percent, Paris winning 3.1 percent and London adding 1.2 percent.
The talks held in Istanbul today were the first face-to-face meeting between the sides since March 10. Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
Ukrainian negotiators said they had proposed a status under which their country would not join alliances or host bases of foreign troops, but would have its security guaranteed in terms similar to "Article 5", the collective defence clause of NATO.
They identified Israel and NATO members Canada, Poland and Turkey as countries that could help provide such guarantees.
The proposals would include a 15-year consultation period on the status of Russian-annexed Crimea, and could come into force only in the event of a complete ceasefire, the Ukrainian negotiators told reporters in Istanbul.
Russian Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Fomin said Russia had decided to scale down fighting near Kyiv and Chernihiv to create the conditions for dialogue. Top Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said he would examine the Ukrainian proposals and report on them to President Vladimir Putin.
"If we manage to consolidate these key provisions, and for us this is the most fundamental, then Ukraine will be in a position to actually fix its current status as a non-bloc and non-nuclear state in the form of permanent neutrality," said Ukrainian negotiator Oleksander Chaly.
The Ukrainian negotiators said there was enough material in their proposals to warrant a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
