On March 15, the Russian-Ukrainian war entered its twentieth day, and after many rounds of talks, Russia and Ukraine finally showed their cards and showed the final bottom line.
What is Ukraine's bright bottom line? That is, the territorial issue has nothing to talk about. Earlier, the Ukrainian side and the Russian side had another round of talks, this time Russia put forward six demands, and demanded that five of them be written into the Ukrainian constitution.
The six demands made by Russia are specifically: first, Ukraine will always be neutral and cannot join NATO; second, Russian language will become the second official language of Ukraine; third, Luhansk and Donetsk, that is, Russia has recognized these two places as independent states, and Ukraine must also recognize them; fourth, Crimea has long been returned to Russia, and this matter should not be mentioned again, and since the ownership has been determined, it must also be written into the Constitution of Ukraine.
Russia's fifth and sixth demands are actually the same and well-known. De-Nathification is also an important reason for Putin to take military action against Ukraine, which must also be fixed, and some far-right organizations, or other more Nazi armed forces, can no longer be had. Another point is that Ukraine must be demilitarized and can never have offensive weapons.
At that time, the Ukrainian negotiators returned to Ukraine to discuss the list of six requirements. But Ukraine has now made it clear that the territorial issue has no place to be discussed. The news was made by an important official figure, the assistant to Ukrainian President Zelenskiy, who was very authoritative. That is to say, Ukraine does not join NATO, this matter can be discussed, of course, this is also a stopgap measure.
It is worth mentioning that because NATO has made it clear that it does not want Ukraine now, even the EU has decided not to let Ukraine join the Union urgently. Therefore, Ukraine is very clever, and the issue of joining NATO is actually not whether it joins or not, it is that the other side does not want it at all.
Therefore, on the above issues, Ukraine seems to be very sincere and can make concessions to Russia. However, when it came to territorial issues, Ukraine made it clear that it had no need to talk about it. This attitude is actually consistent with the previous statements made by the Ukrainian authorities and President Zelenskiy.
At the same time, Ukrainian President Zelenskiy has also made some tough moves. For example, he once again continued the presidential decree, the wartime state of Ukraine, until April 24. Ukraine began its wartime state on February 24 for a month, so now it will be another month.
In addition, Ukrainian President Zelenskiy also used the social media he is very good at using to release the latest achievements of the Ukrainian side. Zelenskiy said that in the course of the war, at least a hundred Russian helicopters, eighty others, and hundreds of tanks had been shot down. Speaking of other technical equipment, the Ukrainian side said that thousands of Russian pieces were captured or destroyed.
Of course, zelenskiy's announcement of the results of the war, the Russian side will not recognize. What he meant by releasing the news at this time was that Ukraine was playing well, not only to encourage the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian soldiers, but also to tell the outside world that Ukraine could still bear it.
Interestingly, in this case, in the early morning of Beijing time on the 15th, the adviser of the Ukrainian President's Office said that the two sides of Ukraine and Russia are expected to sign a peace agreement within one to two weeks at the earliest, and if it can be reached, this should be a good news for the world.
However, the two sides have not given in to each other on the core issues surrounding the territory, which has also cast a great shadow over the process of peace talks. Combined with the increasingly fierce situation on the battlefield at present, the two sides can now be said to be fighting and talking at the same time, and the more they talk, the more fierce the fight may be. It should be said that this is also a characteristic of the current Russo-Ukrainian war.