A tense round of negotiations between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the American delegation took place in Berlin.
Ukraine was ready to discuss painful compromises on not joining NATO before holding elections in the near future, but there is a line beyond which Zelensky is not prepared to go.
The German Bild writes that the key dispute is territorial. One of the program's points states that Crimea, the Luhansk, and Donetsk regions are "de facto recognized as Russian," and that the front lines in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions are frozen.
According to BILD, Kyiv is ready for a temporary "freezing" of the front and the actual loss of control over the territories occupied by Russia, but categorically rejects the demand to withdraw Ukrainian troops from the controlled part of the Donetsk region.
The United States has offered a compromise: Ukraine is withdrawing from about 5,600 square kilometers of the Donetsk region, and the area is becoming a "demilitarized economic zone" without the entry of Russian troops. Moscow immediately supported this, as only the Rosgvardia, not the regular army, would enter there.
"We will not accept this. It would be tantamount to the capitulation of the Ukrainian army," a senior Ukrainian official told BILD.
In response, Kyiv put forward its own proposal, which President Volodymyr Zelensky voiced.
"If Ukrainian troops are retreating, say, five to ten kilometers, why shouldn't Russian troops also retreat the same distance, deep into the occupied territories?" he stressed.
