The United States has put a new ultimatum on the peace negotiation table in Ukraine: o This process is possible in a matter of days or Washington withdraws from conversations. The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who, to address a possible fire between the Ukrainian and Russian army, said Friday that the United States has to assess whether peace can be achieved today. “We are not going to continue with this effort for weeks or months. Therefore, we need to determine quickly, and I am talking about the matter of days, if this is feasible in the coming weeks,” he said. “In the next few days we have to determine it and, if not possible, to move on to something else, because the United States has other priorities,” he insisted.
Hours later, asked about the intervention of his Secretary of State, President Donald Trump has confirmed the warning: “There is no specific number of days, but we want to do it quickly,” he informs Miguel Jiménez From Washington. “(…) let’s stop it [la guerra]ideally. Now, if for any reason, one of the two parts makes it very difficult, we will only say: ‘You are some fools. You are some fools, you are some terrible people, and we are going to pass, but hopefully we do not have to do it, ”he told questions of journalists, who, however, has pointed out:“ I think we have many possibilities to solve the problem. ”According to the president, there is“ enthusiasm ”for bringing negotiation to fruition and“ nobody is playing with anyone, ”he added in reference to Russia.
In Paris, Rubio talked Thursday with Macron, representatives of the United Kingdom and Germany and also a Ukraine delegation. “[Los tres países europeos] They can help us move forward and get closer to a solution. I have found its useful and constructive contributions, ”he said. Paris stressed that the conversations to three were fruitful and“ they are the opportunity to reach a convergence ”.
Also on Thursday, Trump, during a meeting at the White House with the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, said that “this week” there will be a response from Moscow to the proposal of Alto El Fuego. “We will see what happens. We will have news of them [Rusia] this week. Very soon, in fact, and we’ll see, ”said the Republican. On March 11, during a meeting to three in Yeda (Saudi Arabia) with Ukrainian and Russian representatives, the American team proposed a cessation of hostilities in the front for a period of 30 days Ukraine as the mobilization of new troops and their training.
This Friday, after Rubio’s statements, Kremlin has affirmed that “some progress” in conversations have been made, but that contacts are “quite complicated” with the United States. “Naturally, the issue is not easy,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said at a press conference. “Russia is committed to the resolution of this conflict, guaranteeing its own interests, and is open to dialogue. We continue to do so,” he added, he reports Javier G. Cuesta. Peskov has also pointed out that the partial truce agreed with Ukraine to suspend for 30 days the attacks on energy infrastructure has ended, and has left in the air that it will be extended. “The month has expired. At the moment there are no more instructions from the Supreme Commander in Chief, President Putin,” he said.
Pre -agreement for minerals
In parallel to the Ultimatum launched by Rubio and then seconded by Trump, the governments of Ukraine and the United States have taken another step in conversations to reach an agreement on the exploitation of Ukrainian minerals, a key issue in the current process of negotiations around the Russian invasion open in February by the US president, Donald Trump. With the US Treasury department, under the command of Scott Besent. “We are pleased to announce the firm, with our American partners, of a memorandum of intentions, which paves the way for an economic association agreement and the establishment of the Investment Fund for the reconstruction of Ukraine,” said Sviridenko in his profile of social network X.
In the message, the Vice Prime Minister Ukraine also adds two photographs: one of them sealing the paper agreed between the parties and another of Besent doing the same in his office. The rubric has been formalized at a distance and without encounter between the ministers. , the country’s prime minister, Denis Shmihal, will travel to Washington on the 21st to meet with Besent and “finish” the technical discussions. Five days later, the negotiating teams of the two parties will inform the progress to, if there is consensus, even sign the final document that day, which will have to be ratified by the parliaments of both countries.
We are happy to announce the signing, with our American partners, of a Memorandum of Intent, which paves the way for an Economic Partnership Agreement and the establishment of the Investment Fund for the Reconstruction of Ukraine.
— Yulia Svyrydenko (@Svyrydenko_Y)
“We hope that the fund,” Sviridenko continued in his note through networks, “becomes an effective tool to attract investments in the reconstruction of our country, the modernization of infrastructure, support for companies and the creation of new economic opportunities.”
The agreement to, among which gas and oil would be, has been one of the priorities of the Trump administration since the beginning of the mandate and the beginning of the conversations with the president of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski. In the absence of knowing the details of the final pact, of all the natural resources of state ownership.
Despite the good harmony among the negotiating teams in the first weeks of conversations and after a first pre -agreement, in which the Ukrainian leader was increasing by the Republican and his vice president, JD Vance, for not showing his gratitude to the help provided by the United States during the last three years of war. Trump has reiterated that kyiv must return, through this agreement, everything received, which calculates in more than 300,000 million, three times more of the figures gathered by the German analysis and monitoring center Kiel Institute.
The text of the memorandum signed now does not address the return of that money, although it does recognize that the United States “has provided significant financial and material support to Ukraine since the large -scale invasion of Ukraine”, initiated on February 24, 2022. This document does not speak of security guarantees, one of the essential conditions established by Zelenski in the first instance to sign the pact. Washington believes that the best protection of the Ukrainian territory is the establishment of an economic agreement through which the United States and its companies would have a strong presence in the country and that, therefore, it would serve as a deterrent to a future new Russian aggression.
The negotiations on this agreement for the exploitation of natural resources have raised in the Ukrainian government and civil society concern about the possibility of loss of sovereignty. In a meeting recently held between Zelenski and a group of journalists, the Ukrainian leader said he was looking for an agreement that was “beneficial” for his country. “You contribute technology,” said the president in reference to the United States, “we production.” “We invest the money together. Jobs, production. Our people earn, also their companies, which have technologies that are not available in Ukraine.”
In this sense, the pre -agreement signed by Sviridenko and Besent says: “The United States respects Ukraine’s intention to avoid conflicts in the elaboration of an agreement with Ukraine commitments to join the European Union or agreements with international financial institutions and other official creditors.” kyiv signed in 2021 with Brussels a memorandum of understanding about minerals.
