Budanov says Russia accepted US security guarantees for Ukraine

Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, stated this at a meeting with journalists, Ukrinform reports.

According to him, during the previous round of talks the Russian side explicitly said it accepted the security guarantees that the United States is offering Ukraine.

"Regarding security guarantees. At the previous negotiations, for example, the Russian side directly stated that they would accept the security guarantees the United States is offering Ukraine. […] What the United States is proposing, the Russians are openly saying, 'yes, well, we will be forced to accept them, we are ready to accept them.' For Ukraine, these are our guarantees, and they will have to respect them," Budanov said.

According to him, the greatest progress has been achieved on the issue of a demilitarized zone.

"In fact, one could say that, in principle, they have already reached conclusions on how all this monitoring will work once the war ends. At this point, there are practically no major problems left. They resolved them during the several meetings that have taken place," Budanov said.

He added that on territorial issues all sides remain at the stage of searching for a "compromise."

Another round of negotiations concluded in Geneva on Thursday, February 26. The talks were held in two formats – separate meetings with the United States and a trilateral meeting involving the United States and Switzerland, Secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov said.

The next round of peace negotiations will take place in Abu Dhabi in early March.

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