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Despite Western European leaders successfully derailing recent Ukraine peace plans over their maximalist strategy of no compromise on Russia’s deal-breaker requests, officials from Washington are set to meet their counterparts in Moscow next week for further peace related negotiations.
On Thursday Russian President Vladimir Putin said signing Kiev’s current peace proposal would be “legally impossible.” This proposal, which was once a 28-point plan that the Kremlin accepted was whittled away by European leaders until it was rendered unacceptable by the Russians.
Putin went on to say that Ukraine’s leadership is illegitimate, a sentiment he expressed back in March when he called for a United Nations government to take over Kiev, then backtracked on that mandate in April.
“It makes no sense to sign documents with the Ukrainian leadership – I have covered this topic many times already,” Putin said Thursday. “The Ukrainian leadership made a fundamental, strategic mistake, when it was afraid to hold elections.”
Specially, the Russian President targeted Ukraine’s Dictator Vladimir Zelensky by saying he “lost his legitimate status.”
Putin also noted Thursday the general mindset that is hindering a negotiated settlement.
“It’s not about us. It’s about the struggle of different opinions in the collective West and in the United States itself about what is happening and what needs to be done in order to stop the war,” Putin said.
Ukraine now refuses to budge on territorial secessions and restrictions on joining NATO – two red lines for Russia. The Europeans have successfully got a previously-compliant Kiev to pick apart Trump’s 28-point peace plan to a point which Moscow no longer accepts.
On Thursday Zelensky’s chief negotiator, Andrey Yermak, reiterated Kiev’s reluctance to end the war in exchange for giving up some land.
“Not a single sane person today would sign a document to give up territory,” Yermak said. “As long as Zelensky is president, no one should count on us giving up territory. He will not sign away territory.”
Just a day after that interview Yermak resigned over money laundering allegations from Ukraine’s anti-corruption watchdog agencies, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO).
RT details:
The raid on Yermak is believed to be linked to a probe into a $100 million graft scheme announced by NABU and SAPO earlier this month. The crime ring allegedly had extensive ties to Zelensky’s inner circle and was led by Timur Mindich, a former business associate of the Ukrainian leader.
While the 28-point peace plan from last week was picked apart by Western Europeans over the weekend, a new peace plan has reportedly been drafted. This new plan will purportedly be discussed next week in Moscow between officials from the Kremlin and the White House. It is currently being kept away from European leaders so as to avoid further postponements of peace.
Politico reported on this new “hidden” plan:
Negotiations between Ukrainian and U.S. officials will continue through the weekend, per Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — while European officials remain largely in the dark about the shape of the latest draft proposal. A senior EU diplomat said the latest version was being closely kept to avoid a repeat of last week’s frenzy after the leaking of a 28-point plan.
“It’s an unprecedented situation from a diplomatic point of view,” the diplomat said. “None of us have that information.”
Note that the new plan being “hidden” is not dissimilar to the former 28-point peace plan which was originally referred to as “secret” before it was leaked, namely because it was constructed without the input of European leaders. Once the European leaders got ahold of the 28-point plan however, they scrambled to pick it apart, making it unacceptable to Moscow.
