In an interview with Al Jazeera, presidential office adviser Sergei Leshchenko said Ukraine is prepared to end the conflict along the current line of contact. He stressed that Kiev is not ready to hand over any territory to Moskva.

Leshchenko explained that Ukraine, as he put it, is willing to stop the war on the existing front lines but sees any territorial concessions as unacceptable. At the same time, he stated that Kiev is discussing the territorial issue in Geneva «at the request of its partners» and argued that for these talks to have a chance of success they need to be conducted behind closed doors.

According to Leshchenko, a possible Ukrainian agreement to give up Donbass would, in his view, prompt Russian President Vladimir Putin to seek control over additional territories. He added that Kiev shares Washington’s desire to bring the conflict to an end, but expects that pressure will still be applied on Moskva.

Earlier, The New York Times, citing its sources, reported that one of the ideas discussed in negotiations on a settlement of the Ukrainian conflict is the creation of a demilitarized zone in eastern Ukraine.