The negotiations on the proposed peace plan promoted by the president of the United States, Donald Trumphave once again put on the table the maximalist demands of Russia and the red lines of Ukraine in a conflict that is about to enter its third winter.
After the first leaks came to light about the initial 28-point plan, which would have been secretly agreed by the US and Russia according to US media, diplomatic contacts have multiplied and Volodímir Zelenski would have managed to balance the scales a bit in a proposal that many Ukrainian experts and officials considered little less than a “capitulation” for Kiev.
This Thursday the ultimatum set by Trump to Zelensky expires and it is most likely that the negotiations will push to the end a deadline that the American was in favor of extending to finish finalizing details.
Below are some keys to what Russia and Ukraine demand to agree to lay down their arms and start a peace process:
In the first draft of the plan leaked by ‘Axios’ last Wednesday, it included some of the demands of Vladimir Putin to withdraw its troops from Ukraine and that coincide with the demands supposedly conveyed by the Russian president to his American counterpart in the meeting that both held on August 15 in Alaska, as exclusively revealed by the Reuters agency.
Last Friday, Putin assured that the proposal could serve as “basis for a definitive peace agreement”.
Moscow claims sovereignty over the two provinces of the DonbásDonetsk and Lugansk, despite the fact that kyiv controls between 15% and 20% of this territory, as well as the peninsula of Crimeawhich Russia annexed in 2014. In the case of the other two provinces – along with Donbas – that Russia annexed after a referendum considered illegal in September 2022, Kherson y Zaporizhiathe front line would freeze.
Other of Putin’s demands are that Ukraine reduce your army almost half, up to 600,000 soldiers, to renounce joining the I’LL TAKE and that troops from the Atlantic Alliance are not deployed in the Slavic country either.
Finally, Russia would be “reintegrated into the global economy” and could return to the G8in addition to getting up all the sanctions imposed since the large-scale invasion of Ukraine.
After a first reaction that was contained, but that showed his discomfort, Zelensky has managed to scratch some of his demands and have red lines respected to prevent, as he said on Friday, Ukraine from facing the dilemma of “losing its dignity” or “a key partner.” Negotiations in Geneva with the US this Sunday have produced a new version of the plan that reflects “most of the key priorities” of kyiv.
The new version of the proposal has not been revealed, but the White House assures in a brief statement released this morning that the US and Ukraine “reaffirmed that any future agreement must fully respect Ukraine’s sovereignty“.
Different senior Ukrainian officials have recalled these days what their country’s red lines are: they will not formally recognize any occupied territory as Russian, they will not impose limits on their defense forces and they will not assume restrictions on possible alliances.
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