There will be no immediate peace in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin made this clear to Donald Trump during a phone call that the American president was the first to report. The Kremlin's position was further defined during the day with a series of noes that rained down like boulders on the negotiations: no truce, no summit with the "terrorist" Volodymyr Zelensky, no credit to Westerners, who would have helped Kiev attack Russia on its soil.
And Moscow's reasons were surprisingly vindicated by Putin in another conversation that was anything but predictable. With Leo XIV. It had never happened since the beginning of the conflict that the Russian leader had heard from the Pontiff: he had never spoken to Bergoglio.
A few days after the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations in Istanbul, which ended without results and were overshadowed by Kiev's sensational blitz against enemy air bases in Siberia, Trump attempted for the umpteenth time to rekindle the flame of diplomacy in his own way : a dialogue between equals, a new phone call to Putin. But his interlocutor's response was not conciliatory.
"President Putin told me, very firmly, that he will have to respond to the recent attacks" by Ukraine on Russian bombers, the US president said, later admitting: "It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate peace." Trump, the Kremlin later highlighted, reassured Putin that the United States had not been informed of Kiev's plans for Sunday's attack on Russian strategic bombers, which are part of Moscow's nuclear deterrent system. That was enough reassurance for the Russians to say that the conversation between the two leaders was "positive and productive."
Before the phone call with Trump, Putin ruled out any easing of military pressure on Ukraine, once again rejecting Kiev's request for a temporary truce in Istanbul. It would be an "encouragement" to "stock up on Western weapons, to continue forced mobilization and preparation for other terrorist acts similar to those perpetrated in the Bryansk and Kursk regions," he said. And precisely in view of these "attacks" on Russian soil, holding a summit with Zelensky would be tantamount to "negotiating with terrorists."
The thesis that "the Kiev regime is aiming for an escalation of the conflict and the carrying out of acts of sabotage against civilian infrastructure on Russian territory" was reiterated by Putin also in a phone call with Pope Leo. A conversation all the more relevant insofar as the new pontiff immediately mobilized for peace, invoking at the same time the need for it to be "just", and therefore not equivalent to a surrender of Ukraine. In recent weeks, the Tsar had rejected the Vatican's offer to host the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations, but now he has made it known that he "appreciated the willingness" of Pope Prevost "to help resolve the crisis".
And there is the intention to "continue contacts", the Kremlin reported. While waiting for future developments, also on the Moscow-Vatican line, Kiev is working to study in detail the memorandum delivered by the counterpart, but in essence the conditions set by the Russians to reach peace are considered unacceptable. Zelensky called them "ultimatums" and accused Moscow of "conducting talks only to delay new sanctions" from the West. Furthermore, it is the position of the Ukrainian leader, to reach a real breakthrough, continuing to negotiate "in this format makes no sense", so a discussion between the leaders is needed.
And in any case, before sitting down to talk about lasting peace, a truce is needed. A position that could not be further from that of Moscow, so much so that the EU would be ready to align itself with the United States towards a blow to the Tsar: 500% duties on countries that buy Russian gas and oil. The only step forward concerns the exchange of prisoners. After the thousand who returned home as part of the first Istanbul agreement, a new exchange of 500 people on each side is planned for next weekend. The only agreement reached in the second round of talks in Turkey.
(Online Union)