Dmitri Peskov, spokesman for Kremlin, said Monday that a meeting between its president, Vladimir Putin, and the Ukrainian leader, Volodimir Zelenski, has been possible. The only condition, according to Peskov, is that experts from both presidents meet previously to prepare the summit. The tone has changed in Moscow, which, claiming that it could only be possible if it provides results: that is, if the meeting serves to confirm that Russia has achieved the objectives of its invasion.
Kremlin’s change changes coincides with the growing pressure from the United States on Russia. The US president, Donald Trump, has gone from being a conciliatory with Putin to be convinced that the Russian autocrat has no intention of negotiating any peace. Trump has first accepted this July that American Armament is transferred to Ukraine, in exchange for previously acquired by European allies. In addition, if before this date Moscow does not show that he accepts a truce in the conflict and negotiating peace, he will apply a package of economic sanctions on Russia and on the countries that buy their energy resources.
The main country threatened by these secondary sanctions is India, the second largest importer of Russian oil after China. The White House has put India in the target, but for now avoids the clash with Beijing, which has already warned that it does not intend to stop acquiring Russian oil and gas.
Both Trump and. The Ukrainian president repeated this demand on Friday and considered that his possible meeting with Putin would be previously coordinated with the US and the European powers.
Turkish mediation
Also the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has reiterated his efforts so that the meeting between the two enemies can be carried out in Türkiye. It is in Istanbul where Russian and Ukrainian delegations have gathered three times since last May, with few results ,.
Hakan Fidan, Turk Foreign Minister, said July 26 on television NTV that his government has received signals from Russia that a meeting between Putin and Zelenski is possible. The Ukraine Foreign Ministry also said after the last meeting in Istanbul, on July 23, that they had detected a more favorable attitude by the Russian delegation.
Moscow’s draconian demands have made it impossible for steps towards peace. The Kremlin has demanded that any cessation of hostilities must go through the end of the delivery of Western weapons to Ukraine, that this country renounces NATO and that the Ukrainian army retires from four provinces that Russia considers its own.
Russia began an offensive for the summer months in which it is moving forward in the front at the highest rate so far this year. He has just completely taken control of the strategic municipality of Chasiv Yar, in Donetsk province, after more than a year of siege, and is increasing the pressure on neighbor Kostiantinivka. And above all, it is forcing the machine to capture the city of Pokrovsk to reinforce its expansion in Donetsk and approach the province of Dnipró.
Ukraine, meanwhile, is intensifying its attacks in Russian territory with long -range drones. Sunday partially destroyed a fuel plant in Sochi and this past morning a train station in the province of Volgograd has attacked. It is the fifth Ukrainian attack in the last four weeks against the Russian rail logistics that supplies armament to the invasion. The position of Ukraine is that Russia must feel that it is vulnerable in its territory so that the Kremlin accepts to negotiate.
“The preparatory work for a meeting like this has not yet been carried out,” Peskov has briefly indicated in a public appearance. “I want to underline that President Putin does not rule out that this meeting is possible after the preparatory work is carried out at the expert level.”
This position can also be a new maneuver to gain time and satisfy Trump’s ears, especially at a time of increasing tension. The US president confirmed Sunday that. This Trump order is a reaction to a threatening message in the social network X of former President Dmitri Medvedev, a member of the Russian National Security Council.
“The United States continues its mediation to reach an agreement on Ukraine,” added Peskov, “they are very important efforts in the context of direct negotiations between kyiv and Moscow.” These words coincide with the visit to the Russian capital. The Trump emissary for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, will also travel to kyiv on the same dates, before Friday, that the time of time put by the US leader has expired to order the sanctions on Russia.
