Russia no longer demanding Ukraine be ‘denazified’ in ceasefire talks

The FT has written an article that states that Russia is no longer demanding that Ukraine be ‘denazified’ in ceasefire talks and will allow Kyiv to join the EU if it abandons Nato aspirations.

Moscow & Kyiv will discuss a pause in hostilities at talks in Turkey tomorrow, and draft documents do not contain three of Russia’s initial core demands — “denazification”, “demilitarisation”, and legal protection for Russian language in Ukraine, sources told the FT.

There has been some relief in markets on the back of the headline as it could be the first signs of progress in peace talks, although when it comes to the possibility of a Putin-Zelenskiy meeting, the Kremlin says there has been no progress. The Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said recently that any meeting between Putin and Zelenskiy to exchange views currently would be counter-productive.

Meanwhile, Ukraine and Russia said their delegations would arrive in Turkey for the peace talks that are expected to take place on Tuesday. Nevertheless, a senior US official said Russian President Vladimir Putin did not appear ready to make compromises. Ukrainian officials are also playing down the chances of a major breakthrough at the talks.

The S&P 500 has moved to session highs of 4,555.73 and is in the green by some 0.27% on the day.