Talking about the progress of the negotiations and Russia’s acceptance of the Ukrainian proposals and that they are worthwhile is a Russian maneuver to gain time.

Russia is seeking to arrange its cards on several levels, militarily it wants to be stationed in eastern Ukraine, politically it is negotiating with China to take sides and line up behind the Russian position, economically to search for new outlets for its energy products in Southeast Asia, specifically India.

The issue of neutrality that Russia wants to impose on Ukraine is complex, as it seeks to oblige Ukraine to heretical neutrality that has nothing to do with international law.

Negotiations are nothing but a Russian way to buy time and return to Plan A and control the Donbass and then divide Ukraine and control all the eastern regions and the southern sea outlets. The evidence is the brutal bombing and the siege of the city of Mariupol, where unarmed citizens were not allowed to leave.

In international norms, negotiations in the event of war are for a peace contract, but Russia wants to complete a surrender contract and erase the concept of the sovereignty of the Ukrainian national state.