under the scrutinizing gaze of the Trump administration. Russian President Vladimir Putin has given his approval to the proposal for a trilateral meeting in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) before Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, in lengthy negotiations last night. “The Kremlin meeting has been beneficial in every way for both Russia and the United States,” Putin’s foreign policy advisor, Yuri Ushakov, said in conclusion.
According to the diplomat, Moscow and Washington have agreed to continue maintaining “close contacts on Ukraine and other issues” in their first bilateral meeting after the capture of the president of Venezuela and partner of Russia, Nicolás Maduro, and the territory of a NATO ally.
Shortly before midnight local time, Donald Trump’s special envoy, the son-in-law of the US president, Jared Kushner, and the director of his Peace Board, Josh Gruenbaum, landed in Moscow to direct the construction of skyscrapers in the devastated Gaza Strip. On the Kremlin’s side, Putin’s foreign advisor, the veteran Yuri Ushakov, and the head of his sovereign fund, Kirill Dmitriev, a special envoy and acquaintance of the Russian president’s family, participated.
The negotiations ended after three in the morning (two hours less in mainland Spain), after extending almost four hours. What was the seventh meeting between Putin and Witkoff was relatively shorter than their five-hour meeting in December.
The diary Financial Times He announced that Washington and kyiv will put “a limited ceasefire” on the emirate’s table. According to the British newspaper, Russia would stop its bombings against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, and its rival would cease its attacks against the Ukraine’s refineries and oil tankers. ghost fleet Russian
In other words, a respite for the Ukrainian population, where hundreds of thousands of people are facing a winter of extreme temperatures below zero without heating, and some relief for the depleted Russian coffers. However, the Kremlin has not publicly commented on any possible truce at any time.
Putin has no intention of making concessions. “Without a resolution of the territorial issue, it is impossible to expect a long-term solution in Ukraine. Russia will continue to pursue the objectives of its special military operation until a solution to the territorial dispute between Russia and Ukraine is reached through the Anchorage formula,” Ushakov said, referring to the meeting between Trump and Putin in Alaska in August last year.
Few details have emerged from the summit of both Alaskan leaders, although Moscow maintains that the North American leader has agreed to pressure Ukraine to make territorial concessions to Moscow, which demands the entire provinces of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, in addition to the disarmament of kyiv.
According to Ushakov, the Kremlin meeting this Thursday focused on learning about the roadmap that the United States, Ukraine and Europe have agreed upon after that Alaska summit and that would leave a Ukraine with a powerful army without giving up the territories that Moscow demands.
The Russian delegation to Abu Dhabi, made up of military personnel, will be headed by the head of the intelligence services of the Russian army (GRU), Igor Kostiukóv. The Main Directorate of the Higher General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (GRU) is one of the different systems that populate the constellation of Russian espionage along with the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had met with Trump hours earlier. At its conclusion, the European leader announced a three-way meeting with the United States and Russia in the Emirates Abu Dhabi this Friday and Saturday, January 23 and 24.
The Russian president also held another meeting in the morning with the president of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. “Only the establishment and full functioning of a Palestinian State can lead to a lasting solution to the conflict in the Middle East,” Putin said while Trump presented his Peace Board in Davos.
The North American leader boasted about the parallel body to the UN that he himself will lead indefinitely, supported by the monarchies of the Middle East and rejected by Europe, while Kushner announced about what were the homes of tens of thousands of murdered people.
“Perhaps you have heard that we are willing to contribute a billion dollars to this new body to support the Palestinian people,” Putin told Abbas before clarifying that his contribution, demanded by Trump from all countries that want indefinite membership, has a catch. “We will do it with our assets frozen in the United States by the previous administration,” explained the Russian president in a clear challenge to the spirit of the sanctions imposed for his invasion of Ukraine. However, Trump didn’t seem to care at all and called the proposal “very interesting.”
