Kyiv, Feb 25Verkhovna Rada deputy from the Opposition Platform — For Life faction Nestor Shufrych said that he convinced Volodymyr Zelensky to initiate negotiations with Russia, one of the points of which would be a possible neutral status of Ukraine in exchange for security guarantees. «My comrades and I were able to convince Zelensky to initiate negotiations «, one of the basic points of which will be the possible neutrality of our country, a neutral status in exchange for security guarantees. Ukraine and the Russian Federation should start talking. Let's hope that this nightmare will end in the coming days,» Shufrych said on the air of the 112 TV channel. On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he had decided on a special military operation against Ukraine. In a televised address to the Russians, he said that the circumstances «require decisive and immediate action from us, the people's republics of Donbass turned to Russia with a request for help.» According to the Russian leader, the entire responsibility for the bloodshed will be on the conscience of the ruling regime in Ukraine. He urged the Ukrainian military not to follow the criminal orders of the Ukrainian authorities, lay down their arms and go home. What Zelensky asks for in his appeals Later, the Russian Ministry of Defense emphasized that the Russian Armed Forces do not launch any missile, air or artillery strikes on the cities of Ukraine: military infrastructure, air defense facilities, military airfields and aviation are disabled by high-precision weapons. The ministry assured that the civilian population was not in danger. Approximately two hours later, the Ministry of Defense added that the Ukrainian border guards «do not offer any resistance», Ukrainian air defense systems were suppressed, and the military infrastructure of military air bases was disabled. The military department denied the information of foreign media about the alleged downing of a Russian plane over Ukraine in the military department.
