AHEAD OF NEGOTIATIONS Ukraine seeks humanitarian corridor, Russians reiterate demands

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The second round of negotiations between the Ukrainian and Russian delegations is expected to begin in Belarus within the next hour.

The minimum goal of the Ukrainian negotiators is to establish humanitarian corridors, i.e., escape routes for civilians from areas where fighting is taking place. This was announced by Ukrainian negotiator David Arahamiya, who also posted a photo with his colleague from the negotiation team in front of a helicopter on Facebook. 

"Minimum goal - humanitarian corridors. Further, depending on circumstances," Arahamiya wrote briefly. 

Russian demands were announced by the country's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

He said that Russia has three demands: Ukraine must be "demilitarized and denazified," it must recognize Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, as part of Russia, and it must formally recognize the two regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states, which Russia did about ten days ago.