Expectative Ukraine – Liberation
As feared, expected, or hoped, depending on the side of the barricades in which we are, Negotiations in Riyadh on the future of Ukraine will once again have given birth to great. On Monday, at the start of the evening, after twelve hours discussions, Russian agencies announced that Moscow and Washington will publish a joint statement on Tuesday.
Volodymyr Zelensky had warned that the meetings would be « Techniques », Washington had raised the foam by announcing that « Never has peace have been so close ». The Russians have repeated this weekend that the conversation will be difficult. The talks in Riyadh started on Sunday between Ukrainians and Americans, and continued on Monday, between Americans and Russians. The Russian delegation was led by senator Grigory Karassin, president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Upper Chamber of the Russian Parliament, and the adviser to the Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), Sergei Besseda. On the American side, Andrew Peek, senior director at the National Security Council (NSC) and Michael Anton, director of political planning in the State Department. Finally, the Ukrainians, who stayed in Riyadh on Monday to wait for the result of the American-Russian bilateral, were overseen by Roustem Oumerov, the Minister of Defense, and the assistant of the chief of staff of the presidency, Pavlo Palissa.
A quick ceasefire under the aegis of the United States remains unlikely for many reasons. Vladimir Putin continues to talk about « Deep Causes » From the conflict that must be sent, that is to say the desire for sovereignty of Kyiv and its Atlanticist and European inclinations, and to demand that the sharing of information and Western military aid to Ukraine cease, as prerequisites for a truce. Volodymyr Zelensky, for its part, has registered NATO membership in the Ukrainian Constitution, requires tangible security guarantees, and calls for its allies daily not to skimp on their support.
According to the adviser to the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, the discussions between the Ukrainian and American delegations on Sunday focused, among other things, to the security of navigation and the stop of the attacks against the Ukrainian ports. « There was talk of a mutual ceasefire: we do not attack their installations at sea, including river installations, and they do not attack our installations and our ports », said Serhiy Leshchenko on Ukrainian television.
It is a question of restoring a cereal agreement which had enabled Ukraine, from July 2022 to July 2023, to export its cereals, vital for world food, despite the presence of the Russian fleet in the area. Russia had withdrawn it, accusing Westerners of not respecting their commitments supposed to soften the sanctions on Russian exports of agricultural products and fertilizers. The restoration of the agreement would allow Russia to export agricultural products and fertilizers via the Black Sea, thus escaping the sanctions imposed by Western countries.
“Today, on the agenda, there is the initiative of the Black Sea and all the aspects linked to the renewal of this initiative. It was President Trump’s proposal and President Putin accepted it. It is with this mandate that our delegation went to Riyadh ”, The Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told journalists. He also clarified that the Russian moratorium on strikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure remained in force, despite reports of continuous Ukrainian attacks against Russian energy infrastructure.
Meanwhile, a Russian strike on the Ukrainian city of Soumy was 88 injured, including 17 children. According to authorities, residential buildings and infrastructure have been affected, and a damaged school. « The children were in a protective structure, they are now evacuated, everyone is alive », said the chief of the military administration of Soumy, Volodymyr Artyukh. « Instead of making hollow peaceties on peace, Russia should stop bombing our cities and ending the war against civilians. Any diplomacy with Moscow should be supported by firepower, sanctions and pressures ”, reacted the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Andriy Sybiha.
« For the Kremlin, it is imperative to drag peace negotiations as long as possible in order to seize the greatest possible number of Ukrainian territories and to take up the ascendancy on Kyiv in its relations with the United States, because Moscow is not able to advance quickly on the battlefield », writes the independent media The Moscow Times, Citing four sources close to the file in the Russian government. For political scientist Fedor Loukianov, editor -in -chief of the review Russia in Global Affairs, Close to the Kremlin, “Everything takes place rather according to the Russian scenario. Moscow has not favorably welcomed the idea of an immediate ceasefire, believing that it was necessary to carefully define the conditions, in order to prepare the main lines of a long-term solution. ”
