It is absolutely clear that Putin does not want Zelensky to be across from him at the negotiating table, and this is the main point of the upcoming negotiations.
After Donald Trump brokered a “peace deal” between Israel and Hamas, he was quick to point out that he would end the war in Ukraine in the same way. All sides are preparing for this, and Moscow is sending more and more signals about what it expects and wants from these negotiations, which no one yet knows when they might start and what will happen. The Russians opened the letters. According to what can be read from the hands of President Vladimir Putin himself and his closest associates, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the new aide to the Russian president and Putin’s intelligence chief, Nikolai Patrushev, Russia wants to convince Donald Trump that, as they emphasize, only Russia and the US are negotiating directly about Ukraine, that is, not about ending the war or a ceasefire, but about the fate of Ukraine as such.
OPENING THE “CARDS”
However, from everything coming out of Moscow when it comes to the peace agreement, it is absolutely clear that Putin does not want Zelensky to be across from him at the negotiating table, and this is the main point of the upcoming negotiations. In a recent interview with the pro-regime Moscow newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, Patrushev was very precise and direct: “Negotiations on Ukraine should take place between Russia and the US without the participation of other Western countries.”
“Moscow has nothing to discuss with either London or Brussels,” Patrushev said, referring to negotiations, as he puts it, “about Ukraine,” while avoiding “with Ukraine.” In the same conversation, he claimed: “It is possible that already this year (meaning 2025, etc.) Ukraine will completely cease to exist.” At a recent meeting with Russian journalists, Sergey Lavrov said ironically that, as he emphasized, Russia “for the moment” is still ready to discuss security guarantees for the country that “is still called Ukraine.”
RUSSIAN CONDITIONS
So, it is clear what Russia wants: full control over Ukraine and that it no longer has any army that would represent any force. Also, Patrushev said that there will be no discussions and negotiations on the territories of Ukraine annexed by Russia. In his opinion, the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions are part of the Russian Federation “and cannot be the subject of speculation and trade in negotiations on the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict”. He believes that these are territories that “were once governed by Kiev, and now have become part of Russia as a result of the will of citizens in accordance with international law, the laws of Russia and the legislation of those regions”. Patrushev stressed that “international recognition of those territories, as well as Crimea and Sevastopol, is important for Russia”.
THE EXISTENCE OF UKRAINE
Former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said in an interview with the BBC’s Russian service that it was clear that “the Russians do not want to negotiate with Ukraine.” “They want to give us only what they will agree to. Putin proceeds from the fact that the existence of Ukraine is the biggest challenge for his regime. For the sake of Ukraine, he will sacrifice everything, including Syria or some kind of geopolitical influence. Putin will not stop his efforts to destroy Ukraine as such, but also the Ukrainian nation, because he believes that the very existence of the term ‘Ukrainian’ is a challenge to his ‘Russian world,'” Klimkin emphasizes.
In his opinion, Trump believes that the very logic of NATO and Western security guarantees for Ukraine irritates Putin. They may temporarily agree on this issue. Putin, of course, will want more, but there are possible compromises. And while the two main actors are preparing a strategy for the upcoming negotiations, the British Telegraph reports that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have agreed that their forces will be part of the international peacekeeping troops that will come to the demarcation line.