Diplomatic negotiations about the conflict in Ukraine seem to advance. This Monday, August 18, Donald Trump interrupted the meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders to talk to Vladimir Putin.
“I didn’t call them in front of them. I thought it would be disrespectful with President Putin, because they don’t have the best relationships,” the president of the United States said Tuesday in an interview with Fox News.
“President Putin did not want to talk to the Europeans, that is part of the problem. He did not talk to anyone in the White House for years,” he added, addressing his predecessor Joe Biden.
Towards a Zelensky-Putine meeting
Donald Trump, who wants to find an exit from the war in Ukraine as soon as possible, met Vladimir Putin last week. This Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, accompanied by European leaders, was invited to a meeting at the White House. At the end of this historic summit, Donald Trump, therefore, spoke with his Russian counterpart.
Notable advance: an upcoming meeting between Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin was agreed. The Russian leader finally accepted the beginning of this meeting, which should be held in two weeks, during his call with Donald Trump. Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed to be ready there too.
Immediately, the first preparations began to guarantee what could happen.
Then tripartite and multilateral meetings
“More than a hypothesis, it is even the collective will,” said Emmanuel Macron in an interview granted to TF1/LCI This Tuesday, questioned about the European team of this announced meeting.
“It will be a neutral country and, therefore, perhaps Switzerland, I beg for Geneva or another country. The last time there have been bilateral discussions, was in Istanbul,” he said.
This Zelensky-Putine meeting will be followed by a tripartite meeting with Donald Trump and then another multilateral with European leaders. “When we talk about security guarantees (for Ukraine), we are talking about the security of the entire European continent,” said Emmanuel Macron on Monday at the White House.
“We have acted that we are launching the work process on security guarantees,” he confirmed in TF1/LCI.
What conditions?
However, the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, said on Tuesday that such a meeting should be prepared “very careful.” According to Donald Trump, “Vladimir Putin accepts that Russia accepts security guarantees for Ukraine.”
“And this is one of the central points that we must take into account and we will take it into account in this table,” he said at the beginning of the meeting with European leaders.
Russia also warned that any possible peace agreement should guarantee its “security” and those of residents who speak Russians in Ukraine, an already soft pretext to launch its invasion in 2022. Vladimir Putin then explained “demilitarized” and “desezing” Ukraine, but also to protect the outbreak of oriental russian from a “genocidal”, an inspired accusation.
With respect to any territorial concession required by Russia to Ukraine to put an end to the conflict, this is “a question that we will leave between Putin and me,” said Volodymyr Zelensky.
Source: BFM TV
