Andrii Yermak. Stock photo: Office of the President of Ukraine

Andrii Yermak, Head of the President’s Office of Ukraine, has affirmed that Kyiv is not conducting any negotiations with the Russian Federation.

Source: Yermak in an interview broadcast on 4 November on the national 24/7 joint newscast

Quote: “These reports from certain sources [the Financial Times, which cited informed sources as saying that Ukraine and Russia are holding preliminary talks about ceasing strikes on each other’s energy infrastructure – ed.], that there are supposedly negotiations going on between Ukraine and Russia, are completely untrue. Here’s what’s really happening: we have held thematic conferences. The first one was on energy security and was held online with Qatar as co-organiser. During this conference, we established principles concerning this point in the Peace Formula. Numerous countries from different continents participated…

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All these thematic conferences are held without Russia. 

Afterwards, we established the principles: if, today, Qatar, for example, or another country is willing to implement these arrangements through separate agreements with Ukraine and, for example, with the Russian Federation, they are welcome to do so. It’s the same situation with food security. Türkiye facilitated the grain corridor for a year, with two agreements: one between Türkiye, the United Nations and Ukraine, and another between Türkiye, the UN and Russia.

If any parties are prepared to implement the outcomes of these conferences within these frameworks, they are welcome to do so. As of now, no agreements have been reached by any party. Should such agreements materialise, Ukraine is prepared to consider them, because they align fully with the principles outlined in Ukraine’s Peace Formula. I believe these discussions are arising as a reaction to the thematic conferences, but I can say for certain that Ukraine is not conducting any negotiations with Russia.”

Details: In response to a follow-up question about whether any partners had requested Ukraine to refrain from targeting specific facilities within Russia, Yermak said, “Let’s put it this way… No one has explicitly requested anything from us, but we know that countries would support agreements on, say, energy security if there were two such agreements with Qatar or another country as an intermediary.”

Background: 

• The Financial Times recently reported, citing informed sources, that Ukraine and Russia were engaged in preliminary talks about halting strikes on each other’s energy infrastructure. 
• The Kremlin dismissed the reports as “fake news”, denying that there have been any such discussions with Kyiv.

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