Duma's Slutsky expects Russia, Ukraine to make their positions closer in talks in next few days

MOSCOW. March 13 (Interfax) - Head of the State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee and member of the Russian delegation Leonid Slutsky has said he sees some prerequisites for Moscow and Kyiv to make their positions closer at the talks in the next few days.

"If we compare the positions of both delegations at the beginning of the negotiations and today, we will see that substantial progress was reached. According to my personal expectations, this progress may evolve into a common position of both delegations, and into documents to be signed in the next few days," Slutsky said in an interview with the RT Arabic television channel.

At the same time, the signature of documents should ease tension, the lawmaker said.

Meanwhile, advisor to the head of the Ukrainian President's Office Mykhailo Podolyak, who is also a Ukrainian negotiator, said in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper published late on March 12, that there are "a dozen proposals" on the negotiating table, including those concerning a ceasefire and the withdrawal of troops.

"Right now all of this is [under consideration] in the conditional working groups, and this is being discussed in legal formats how the final documents might look like. After all, we will have to initial them later, sign them and so on. As soon as mutual, already legal formats are elaborated, a meeting will be scheduled, the fourth round of negotiations. It could be tomorrow, the day after tomorrow," Podolyak said.

As reported, the parties to the talks do not disclose the details of the negotiations until their end.