Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top foreign policy advisor said this Sunday (21) that the changes made by Europeans and Ukraine to the United States’ proposals for ending the war in Ukraine did not improve the prospects for peace.
The proposals drawn up by the US to end the war that has lasted almost four years have raised concerns in Europe and Ukraine that they are tilted too much in favor of Russia and that the government of US President Donald Trump could pressure Kiev to give in too much.
Since then, European and Ukrainian negotiators have met with Trump envoys in an attempt to add their own proposals to draft US versions, although the exact content of the current proposal has not been disclosed.
Yuri Ushakov, a Kremlin foreign policy adviser, told journalists in Moscow that changes in Europe and Ukraine would not improve the chances for peace.
“This is not a prediction,” Ushakov said, according to Russian news agencies, although he said he had not yet seen the exact proposals in writing.
“I am sure that the proposals that the Europeans and Ukrainians have made or are trying to make definitely do not improve the document and do not increase the possibility of achieving lasting peace,” he said.
Meeting in Florida
Ushakov made the statements after Putin’s special envoy, . Dmitriev said talks would continue on Sunday.
The meeting in Miami followed talks between the United States and Ukrainian and European officials on Friday.
At stake is whether Putin will agree to an end to Europe’s bloodiest war since World War II, the future of Ukraine, the extent to which European powers will be marginalized and whether a U.S.-brokered peace deal will endure.
The Ukrainian president, if this would facilitate more prisoner exchanges and pave the way for meetings between national leaders.
Ushakov said a proposal for trilateral negotiations had not been seriously discussed by anyone and was not being worked on.
Russia claims European leaders are bent on sabotage by introducing conditions they know are unacceptable to Russia, which has annexed between 12 and 17 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory per day by 2025.
Ukrainian and European leaders say that what they see as an imperial-style territorial grab cannot be allowed to take place.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in the east of the country, triggering the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the height of the Cold War.
Putin describes the war as a turning point in relations with the West, which he says humiliated Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 by expanding NATO and encroaching on what he considers Moscow’s sphere of influence.
