Russia and Ukraine are arguing over security guarantees for Kiev, even before they start discussing territory. Moscow continues to bomb and mass troops in the south, and peace is edging further away . So much so that even Donald Trump has decided to backtrack on the mediation and now wants Moscow and Kiev to organize a meeting between their leaders without his intervention.
The Guardian reports this, citing White House officials who believe it would be better for Putin and Zelensky to initially meet without Trump . Trump, meanwhile, after days of prominence, has withdrawn, handing the dossier over to Rubio . A senior US official called the tycoon's new position a sort of "wait-and-see attitude."
"Moscow is massing troops in the south, Putin doesn't want peace," Zelensky declared. "Kiev is not interested in a just and lasting solution to the conflict," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov responded.
Before a possible meeting between the two leaders, it is essential to define the methods for ensuring security in Kiev following a possible peace agreement. Ukraine wants the involvement of European states and NATO .
But for Moscow, "foreign military intervention in part of Ukrainian territory is unacceptable," Lavrov reiterated. "After the Russia-US summit in Alaska, where significant progress was made in defining the contours and concrete parameters of a solution, European countries followed Zelensky's example in Washington and tried to promote their own agenda there, which aims to build security guarantees on the logic of Russia's isolation, of the Western world's union with Ukraine in order to continue its aggressive and confrontational policy , of containing the Russian Federation, with the aim, of course, of inflicting a strategic defeat on us. This, of course, cannot arouse in us any feeling other than complete rejection."
Thus, Lavrov revived the option discussed in 2022 at the Istanbul negotiations, when the role of permanent members of the UN Security Council, including China and Russia, was raised . Zelensky rejected this option: "First, China did not help us stop this war from the very beginning. Second, China helped Russia by opening up its drone market... We do not need guarantors who do not help Ukraine and did not help it at the time when we really needed it ," he declared.
Then there is the question, raised by Moscow, of Zelensky's legitimacy: "When and if, hopefully, a peace agreement is signed, the issue of the legitimacy of the person who will sign these agreements will have to be resolved by Kiev ," Lavrov said, referring to the fact that the Ukrainian president's mandate expired in May 2024 without new elections being held due to martial law in the country .
Once the difficult hurdle of security guarantees has been overcome, the issue of territories will have to be discussed. This was not even mentioned, at least officially, in the White House meetings. But Putin had been clear in Alaska: he wants recognition of Crimea, the entire Donbass (including the part not yet conquered), and the maintenance of the front line in the other three regions where the Russian army has advanced .
"I don't quite understand how concessions to the aggressor can end the war. This way, the aggressor doesn't pay the price for aggression; on the contrary, it does. So why should it stop? Moreover , President Zelensky has made it very clear: the transfer of territories to Russia is prohibited," said Mikhailo Podolyak, an advisor to the Ukrainian president .
According to Zelensky's advisor, "Ukraine's preliminary position is this: we understand that one of the basic scenarios for exiting this war is to freeze the conflict along the front line. These are territories currently de facto occupied by Russia. They would remain so. And then there would be a major effort, through economic, diplomatic, and other means, to return these territories to Ukraine ."
(Unioneonline/L)
