Russia-USA joint statement contains clause on transportation of Russian agricultural products, Ukraine regards this as weakening of pressure on aggressor – Zelenskyy
The joint Ukrainian-American and American-Russian statements differ in one point out of five: Ukraine insisted on the return of children, and the Russian Federation on the removal of barriers to the transportation of their agricultural products, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
"As far as we know, the Russians raised the issue of the American side helping the Russians transport their agricultural products. That is, the issue of ports, tariffs and the like. We did not agree to this, so that it would be in our common document. We believe that this is a weakening of positions and a weakening of sanctions, in our opinion. We do not yet know the details of this point and we were not present at the meeting, so I cannot say anything. But this was not on our agenda," Zelenskyy said during his conversation with journalists on Tuesday.
According to him, the American side raised this issue with the Ukrainian delegation, the head of the delegation, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov contacted him on this issue, "I said that this is not a discussion of an unconditional ceasefire, even a partial ceasefire in the sky, at sea, on the removal of certain barriers for Russians on agricultural products."
"We had the issue of returning children, you remember. We had the issue of exchanging prisoners of war and exchanging civilians. That's why we agreed - there will be two statements. In our statement, the fifth point is that America will help us with the return of children, prisoners of war, civilians, yes, military and civilian prisoners, and the Russians will have what they agreed on with them," the president said.
Zelenskyy believes that the Ukrainian side "once again worked constructively with the American side." "We'll see how it works," he added.