The team of negotiators from Ukraine and Russia, engaged in the second round of talks in the Belarusian forest, is in fact the same as the one that participated in the talks in Gomel. While Kiev is deploying one of its game-changers (leading the Ukrainian delegation, once again, is Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, advisor to President Volodymyr Zelensky), the Russians prefer to keep a lower profile: Vladimir is responsible for the Russians Medinsky, Vladimir Putin’s adviser.
As seen in this navigable image seated at a table, there are five Russians and four Ukrainians. On the Ukrainian side, to Reznikov’s left, are lawyer David Arakhamia, leader of Zelensky’s party, and Mikhailo Podoliak, advisor to the Ukrainian president. Completing the quartet is the Deputy Foreign Minister, Mykola Tochytskyi, former Ukrainian ambassador to the EU and then to Great Britain. Compared to Gomel, the deputy Rustem Umerov is missing. In the Russian delegation the head of the Medinsky delegation is in the center. To his right are Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the Duma’s foreign commission, and Boris Gryzlov, Russian ambassador to Belarus. To Medinsky’s left sit Alexander Fomin, Deputy Minister of Defense, and Andrei Rudenko, Deputy Foreign Minister.