Russia has a counteroffer to make: no to everything. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Riabkovhas been in charge of transmitting the frontal rejection of the Kremlin to the annotations made by Ukraine and the EU to the 28-point plan that the US and Russia initially agreed upon.
With the careful nuance of “applauding the efforts of the Trump Administration,” the senior Russian diplomatic official has made it clear that he does not they will make some “concession” in the basic elements of the plan born from the summit between Trump and Putin in Alaska in full.
“There can be no talks about concessions nor give in our approaches on the key aspects,” admitted Ryabkov, second in Sergei Lavrov’s ministry, in reference not only but also to the offensive in Ukraine.
In that total negative are included changes made by kyiv and the EUwhich would veto the delivery of Donbas to Russia, the extreme curtailment of the Ukrainian army or the refusal to join NATO in the future, topics eliminated in Ginera’s text. For the Kremlin, what was written down on Sunday in Geneva is a dead letter. In his opinion, both this document and “the various versions of this plan” are “matter of negotiation”, always making it clear that “the issue revolves around the presence or absence of political will to strictly apply the understandings reached by leaders in Anchorage”, referring to the aforementioned August summit.
The deputy foreign minister insists that Russia will not give up anything and “is prepared to achieve your set goalspreferably through diplomatic means.” This was discussed in Alaska at the Trump and Putin meeting and “we will continue to act within this framework.”
“Our position has been very consistent from the beginning. It addresses several aspects of the current situation and focuses largely on the underlying causes of the crisiswhich we have been facing for a long time,” insists the number two in a key ministry for Putin.
Although its refusal is, today, total, the Russian Government does admit that it takes “time” and “silence” in the face of what he calls interested noise. “A series of media outlets are being used not only as ‘drainage channels’, but as weapons in the information war,” assesses the vice minister.
For all these reasons, “time and attention is needed for the dialogue process to continue.” Ryabkov has insisted on the idea already expressed by other senior officials of the Putin regime and believes that peace negotiations in Ukraine “are not something that can be discussed publicly, since there are too many serious issues currently in the spotlight.”
