Our line (in the negotiations) will be designed to achieve the goals of the special military operation, Lavrov said in an interview with propaganda reporter Pavel Zarubin.
They were formulated by the president in June 2024 and have not changed since then.
In June 2024, Vladimir Putin made it clear that a ceasefire and negotiations were out of the question until Ukraine met two demands. First, all Ukrainian forces would have to withdraw from the four regions that were partially occupied, and second, Ukraine would have to declare that it would never join NATO.
“Doesn’t seem to understand”
Russia’s stalled full-scale invasion of Ukraine had already devolved into a war of attrition along a largely frozen front line.
Ukraine likened Putin’s actions to Adolf Hitler’s demands before World War II. The then US government responded that Putin had no mandate to dictate terms to Ukraine.
At the time, fruitless attempts were made to bring together around 90 countries for negotiations on a peace settlement without Russia at the table. Now, dialogue between the two parties to the war is being conducted by a US government that is increasingly accommodating to Russia.
According to Sergei Lavrov, Russia is now being heard by the Americans on its view of the “root causes” of the war. It has been decided that European representatives will participate in the continued talks, but the Russian foreign minister wants to downplay this.
He says the EU seems to have difficulty understanding “what role they can be assigned”:
They probably realize that the train is about to depart and are trying to jump onto the steps of the last carriage.
Agreed on more talks
There was no breakthrough when trilateral talks resumed in Abu Dhabi earlier this week, but the parties agreed that negotiations would continue.
Afterwards, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with the two US mediators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, in Dublin on the sidelines of a European summit. According to Zelenskyy, the talks largely focused on what security guarantees his country could be offered.
According to Zelenskyy, Witkoff and Kushner discussed the idea that Ukraine could give up the partially occupied territories in the east in exchange for NATO membership.
A Russian letter seen by The New York Times and The Washington Post shows that Russia’s starting point is largely the same as the one Vladimir Putin put forward before the full-scale invasion nearly six years ago. In some respects, the demands are higher than they were then.
What do you think?