Russian and Ukrainian peace talks are reportedly progressing further than ever before, with both camps giving their most upbeat assessments yet.
The Russian negotiations delegate even went as far as to suggest it may produce positive results in the coming days.
But it is unknown if this was an attempt to put pressure on Ukraine or paint them as the aggressors if talks fail.
Ukraine has said that it is willing to negotiate about an end to the bloody invasion of its country, but will not surrender or accept any ultimatums.
Ukrainian presidential advisor and negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak said in a video posted online: “We will not concede in principle on any positions.
" Russia now understands this. Russia is already beginning to talk constructively,”
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In more good news for peace talks, separately, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said Russia was willing to engage in substantive negotiations.
These talks could bring about an end to the conflict which has seen thousands die and more than 2.5million flee.
“I think that we will achieve some results literally in a matter of days,” he said.
RIA news agency quoted a Russian delegate, Leonid Slutsky, as saying the talks had made substantial progress.
He said: “According to my personal expectations, this progress may grow in the coming days into a joint position of both delegations, into documents for signing.”
Neither side indicated what the scope of any agreement might be.
Their public comments were issued almost at the same time, on the eighteenth day of the war.
In a tweet, Podolyak said Russia was carefully listening to Ukraine's proposals.
He said: “Our demands are - the end of the war and the withdrawal of [Russian] troops. I see the understanding and there is a dialogue.”
This comes as nearly a week ago, the Kremlin’s chief spokesperson claimed Russia was ready to halt military operations “in a moment” if Kyiv met a list of its conditions.
These included unrealistic demands like ceding Crimea to Russia officially and recognising the separatist republics of Donetsk and Lugansk as independent states.
He said that “we can discuss and find a compromise on how these territories will live on” before adding “we're not ready for capitulation”.
There have so far been three rounds of talks between the two sides, held in Belarus.
The most recent took place last Monday and focused on humanitarian issues and led to the limited opening of some corridors for civilians to escape fighting.
However, in the days since, there have been reports of Russian troops violating this agreement and firing on civilians trying to flee along these routes.
On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed there had been some “positive shifts” in the talks as well, and a day later the Kremlin said talks between the sides continued “in video format”.
There has also been disagreement between the countries as to whether talks were ongoing today.
The Kremlin said the next round of talks was due to take place Monday, but Ukraine said they were due to talk today about the besieged city of Mariupol.
