Only Russia and the US will draft a peace agreement for Ukraine. This is what the Russian publication MK.ru writes, analyzing the latest statements of President Vladimir Putin.
Everything is moving at breakneck speed towards what was predetermined from the very beginning: the fate of Ukraine will be decided between Russia and the United States. The initially meaningless formula “nothing for Ukraine without Ukraine“ has been thrown into the trash.
So Kiev can negotiate with whoever it wants, but this will not affect the final result, the publication comments.
Putin practically put an end to the debate about who negotiates with whom. He stated that Russia may want to negotiate with Ukraine, but from a legal point of view this is currently impossible. Moscow does not see Zelensky as the country's legitimate leader.
However, the outlines of the peace plan prepared by the United States are quite suitable – they need to be discussed and translated into diplomatic language. For this purpose, an American delegation will arrive in Moscow next week.
In general, things are turning out as Trump's special envoy Driscoll said a week ago: European officials have become too close to their Ukrainian counterparts to assess the situation objectively, and therefore European countries are not participating in the negotiations.
Russia and the United States will negotiate – without intermediaries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that the fighting in Ukraine will stop after Ukrainian troops withdraw from their positions in key areas, but if they do not do so, then Russian forces will achieve their goals by force.
The legal recognition of Crimea and Donbas as Russian territories should be the subject of negotiations between Moscow and Washington, Putin also said, commenting to journalists on the point in the US peace plan that provides only for the de facto recognition of these territories as part of Russia.