Russia and Ukraine give brightest assessment yet of progress in talks

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russian and Ukrainian officials gave their most upbeat assessments yet on Sunday, march 13 of progress in their talks on the war in Ukraine, suggesting there could be positive results within days, Reuters reports.

Separately, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said Russia was showing signs of willingness to engage in substantive negotiations about ending a conflict in which thousands have died. More than 2.5 million people have fled.

Ukraine has said it is willing to negotiate, but not to surrender or accept any ultimatums.

"We will not concede in principle on any positions. Russia now understands this. Russia is already beginning to talk constructively," Ukrainian negotiator and presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in a video posted online.

"I think that we will achieve some results literally in a matter of days," he said.

RIA news agency quoted a Russian delegate, Leonid Slutsky, as saying the talks had made substantial progress.

"According to my personal expectations, this progress may grow in the coming days into a joint position of both delegations, into documents for signing," Slutsky said.

Neither side indicated what the scope of any agreement might be.

Their public comments were issued almost at the same time. They came on day 18 of the war which began when Russian forces invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 in what the Kremlin terms a special military operation.