Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday called for meaningful peace and security talks with Russia.

"The time has come for a meeting; it is time to talk," he said in a video address released on Saturday. 

Negotiations with Russia may last weeks, Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said in a Bloomberg interview. 

Ukraine's positions – a ceasefire, the withdrawal of troops and strict security guarantees with specific formulas – remain unchanged, Podolyak tweeted earlier.

On the Russian side, Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, also the head of the Russian delegation in several rounds of talks with Ukraine, said Friday that the two sides have moved closer to agreement on the key issue of Ukraine dropping attempts to join NATO and adopting a neutral status.

According to Russian media reports, he said that the two sides are now "halfway" on issues regarding the demilitarization of Ukraine, though their positions on the management of Donbas still differ.

(With inputs from Xinhua)