Photo: MFA

The upcoming meeting between the Ukrainian and American delegations in Saudi Arabia is not political, but technical, stressed the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Heorhiy Tykhy.

"As President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, this meeting is not political, but technical. This is a meeting at which the parameters of the proposals on various ceasefire regimes that are on the table today should be determined. We, as a state, proposed and agreed to a specific American proposal for a 30-day, complete ceasefire. We accepted it while still in Jeddah," he said at a briefing in Kyiv on Friday.

The Foreign Ministry stated that if "Putin and Russia agreed to this proposal, a ceasefire could already be in effect."

"Instead, we see various new conditions from the Kremlin, some conversations, some proposals, manipulations and the like," Tykhy added.

At the same time, he explained that Ukraine treats the negotiations that will take place in Saudi Arabia as bilateral Ukrainian-American negotiations, and considers them "as a technical round, not a political one."

"Accordingly, the details and implementation of decisions that have already been made at the political level will be discussed there... That is, professional people from the Ukrainian and American sides should meet, who will be able to find out all the details of how it should look. We need to understand how it will work, who will control it, how monitoring will take place," the Foreign Ministry noted.

Tykhy also said that the Ukrainian side does not know how the Americans will contact the Russians in Saudi Arabia.

"This is their choice. But we are preparing for negotiations in Saudi Arabia, just like for bilateral Ukrainian-American history," the spokesman added.

Tykhy also said that Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha will not be present at the meeting, since it is not a "political level" and there will be a "military component."