Ukraine floats Canada as security guarantor at peace talks. Here’s what’s happening

Ukraine proposed accepting neutral status and floated Canada as a potential security guarantor at peace talks with Russia in Turkey on Tuesday.

Talks have been ongoing throughout the conflict, which began on Feb. 24 when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops into the country, but have yet to produce any breakthroughs.

However, with Russian forces bogged down in Ukraine, new hopes emerged for peace at the latest round of in-person talks in Istanbul.

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Ukraine proposed accepting neutral status in exchange for security guarantees at the talks, meaning it would not join military alliances or host military bases, Ukrainian negotiators said on Tuesday.

The proposals would also include a 15-year consultation period on the status of annexed Crimea and would only come into force in the event of a complete ceasefire, the negotiators told reporters in Istanbul.

Russia’s top negotiator said their side will look at Ukraine’s proposals and report them to Putin.

Furthermore, Russia promised to drastically cut its military activity focused on Kyiv and Chernihiv, its deputy defence minister said on Tuesday, after talks between the two sides. Turkey’s foreign minister said the talks were the most significant to date.

Ukrainian negotiators included Canada in a list of potential countries that could be its security guarantors under a potential agreement, negotiators said.

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Ukraine envisions security guarantees along the lines of the NATO military alliance’s Article 5, its collective defence clause. Poland, Israel, Turkey and Canada could be among the potential security guarantors.

“If we manage to consolidate these key provisions, and for us, this is the most fundamental, then Ukraine will be in a position to actually fix its current status as a non-bloc and non-nuclear state in the form of permanent neutrality,” negotiator Oleksander Chaly told reporters.

“We will not host foreign military bases on our territory, as well as deploy military contingents on our territory, and we will not enter into military-political alliances. Military exercises on our territory will take place with the consent of the guarantor countries.”

Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich was in the room with the negotiators, which was a surprise appearance for the billionaire who’s been sanctioned by the West.

Abramovich was sitting in the front row of observers wearing a blue suit, a Turkish presidential video feed showed. Moscow said he was not an official member of the Russian delegation, but said he was there to “enable certain contacts” between the two sides.

On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal and investigative outlet Bellingcat reported that Abramovich and Ukrainian negotiators suffered symptoms of suspected poisoning earlier this month after a meeting in Kyiv.

Russia dismissed the poisoning reports as untrue and part of an “information war.”

While the two sides worked to reach a diplomatic solution, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called on Ukraine and Russia to agree on the safe evacuation of civilians from the besieged city of Mariupol and other areas where vital supplies are running out.

“People are caught and trapped in the line of fire. And it is happening, unfortunately, in many places today in Ukraine, not only in Mariupol,” said ICRC Director-General Robert Mardini at ICRC headquarters in Geneva.

“What we expect and what is needed for civilians is that there is a clear and explicit agreement by the two sides on safe evacuations of civilians.”

There was no immediate word on Tuesday if the two sides made progress toward guaranteeing a humanitarian ceasefire in Ukraine.

— with files from Reuters.