A calibrated summit for Vladimir Putin? After a rebirth of the tension between Washington and Moscow, the Russian president is preparing to meet with Donald Trump in Alaska, on August 15, to discuss an exit in the war in Ukraine.
The US president said this week this week to such a meeting as a result of a new visit to his special emissary in Moscow, Steve Witkoff, before announcing the date this Friday. It will be the first meeting between US and Russian heads of state since the beginning of the conflict in 2022.
This new turn in war negotiations in Ukraine occurs at the expiration of a ultimatum Released by Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin, according to which Russia had to conclude a peace agreement before Friday, under the penalty of being inflicted by US sanctions.
USA SANCTIONS NEW PENDING
For the Ukrainian political scientist Oxana Melnychuk, the Russian president discovered with this summit a new way of escaping from the wrath of Washington, while the US president has multiplied in recent months the signs of discomfort towards the Kremlin. By accepting this meeting, Donald Trump “bit the hook” of Vladimir Putin, he said.
“Vladimir Putin won for the second time. The first time was in May,” said the director of the Ukraine Association. During this period, the Europeans and Americans had summoned Russia to accept a high 30 -day fire in Ukraine, threatening Moscow with “massive” sanctions in the opposite case.
But before the Russian rejection, Donald Trump had not made his threats and, after a new call with Vladimir Putin, announced a new cycle of negotiations.
In mid -July, the US president, therefore, launched a new 50 -day ultimatum to Russia, then reduced to ten days. Does this become obsolete with the meeting in Alaska? When asked about the problem this Thursday, the US president dodged: “It will depend on Putin, we will see what he will say.”
An “exchange of territories” for the benefit of Moscow
The basis of negotiations also seems favorable for the Kremlin teacher. On Friday at the White House, Donald Trump spoke of an “exchange of territories for the benefit of each” between Ukraine and Russia as part of a future agreement between the two countries, without further details.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Vladimir Putin told Steve Witkoff that he would accept a high fire if Ukraine agrees to withdraw his troops from the East Region of Donetsk. Russia would control the Oblasts of Donetsk and Louhansk, as well as the Crimean Peninsula, of which it seized 2014 and which you want to see recognized as Russian Sovereign territory.
However, it is difficult to imagine which territories could be sold to Ukraine in return. “It is extremely hypocritical. Currently, it is Russia that occupies the Ukrainian territory and not Ukraine that Russia occupies, so talking about a mutual concession seems very complicated,” said General Jérôme Pellistrandi, BFMTV defense consultant.
“We are going to exchange Ukrainian territories for the Ukrainian territories, it is absurd,” says its side of Oxana Melnychuk.
Also according to the Wall Street Journal, the Russian proposal provides a first phase that would make Ukraine retire from Donetsk before a freezing of the Frost line. During a second phase, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump would adapt to a final peace plan, which would then be negotiated with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, European sources said by the newspaper.
Putin and Trump in the photo, Marginado Zelensky
For the former French ambassador to Russia Claude Blanchemaison, the meeting is also an image victory for Vladimir Putin, while the Russian president has been prohibited by Westerners since the invasion of Ukraine.
“He wants the photo that, in the eyes of the world and its population, makes it the alter ego of Donald Trump,” said the former BFMTV diplomat.
The summit between the two men apparently aside to the Ukrainian President, who is the main concern for the Russian aggression of Ukraine. “Any decision that would be made against us, any decision that would be made without Ukraine, would be a decision against peace,” said Volodomyr Zelensky, adding that “the Ukrainians will not give up their land to the occupants.”
The Ukrainian president believes that a meeting between him and Vladimir Putin is a “priority” and that “it is legitimate that Ukraine participates in the negotiations” regarding the future of his country. But for Vladimir Putin, the “conditions” are not met for such a meeting, which, according to him, would make sense in the final phase of the peace negotiations.
As for Donald Trump, his answer was clear: about the question of whether he thought that Vladimir Putin had to talk to his Ukrainian counterpart before knowing him, the US president replied “no.”
Also excluded from Russian-American negotiations, Europeans said that “the Paz Camino in Ukraine cannot be drawn without Ukraine” in a press release signed by France, Italy, Germany, Poland, the United Kingdom and the European Commission.
Source: BFM TV
