““On the issue of territories, the USA has a simple position: Russia demands that Ukraine give up the territories, and the Americans continue to think about how to do it””, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
“On the issue of territory, the Americans have a simple position: Russia demands that Ukraine give up the territories, and the Americans continue to think about how to do it. The Americans insist that Ukraine must leave Donbas… one way or another,” the official told the newspaper.
Ukraine insists that any peace agreement must provide for the freezing of the war on the current positions. Currently, about 30% of Donbas is under the control of Ukraine.
“In general, the most realistic option is to stay in your positions. But the Russians are putting pressure on Kyiv to give up the territories,” the European official said.
The US continues to pressure Ukraine to quickly agree to the agreement.
Kyiv is trying to explain to the US that giving Vladimir Putin what he could not achieve in more than three years of war will only encourage him to make further conquests. He also feels pressured by the speed at which Americans want to move.
“Maybe Trump also wants it to happen quickly, so his team has to explain to him that it’s not their fault that it’s not happening as quickly as he would like,” the European official said.
On December 8, US President Donald Trump said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi has not yet read the US peace proposals. At the same time, he said that “his people are delighted,” and Russia is generally satisfied with the plan, although “Russia would prefer to have all of Ukraine.”
After that, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi said that the negotiators, who are discussing the peace initiative with the mediation of the United States, maintain disagreements about the territories.
Read also: Survey: more than 50% of Ukrainians plan to protest in case of unacceptable concessions by Russia during the negotiations
Last week, American representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met in Moscow with Russian leader Vladimir Putin regarding the parameters of a possible peace agreement in the Russian-Ukrainian war. Later, Putin confirmed that during the meeting with Witkoff and Kushner on December 2, Russian representatives did not agree with part of the points of the American plan to end Russia’s war against Ukraine.
After this meeting, the Ukrainian delegation in the US continued negotiations with representatives of the Trump administration, which lasted several days.