Despite US diplomatic efforts to negotiate a lasting peace settlement for Ukraine, the prospects of a breakthrough remain bleak.
Last month, a 28-point agreement surfaced as the basis for a peace deal following what appeared to be secret talks between Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump's special envoy, and Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, who serves a similar role for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But the plan drew widespread criticism from both European leaders and Ukraine, who argued that the territorial concessions being offered to Moscow were rewarding Putin. This prompted days of intensive talks between US and Ukrainian officials in Geneva, where revisions were made.
Having squared off the Europeans and Ukrainians, Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, travelled to Moscow this week for face-to-face talks with Putin at the Kremlin in the hope of finally making a breakthrough in a process that first began after Trump returned to the White House in January.
But the revisions were not deemed acceptable to Moscow, taking negotiations back to the drawing board. In a recent interview for the POLITICO website, the Kremlin’s TV personality and State Duma politician, Yevgeny Popov, said that “no decisions will be made that would undermine Russia’s security. This must be clearly understood.”
Apart from Putin’s body language, which signalled that there was no room for compromise, Witkoff and Kushner were deliberately kept waiting for several hours before the meeting, as the Russian president spoke at the press conference where he warned that “We’re not planning to wage a war with Europe, but if Europe decides to start a war, we’re ready right now,” he said.
