Ukraine intends to replay the Istanbul round in Washington

At a meeting with representatives of Donald Trump’s team, the Ukrainian side intends to talk about the results of the negotiations in Istanbul and how Moscow is delaying the truce in order to continue the conflict, said the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Ermak. And Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky criticized the idea of a local ceasefire proposed by the Russians at the second Istanbul round for several days for humanitarian reasons and again called for a 30-day truce. Although this also meant only a temporary suspension of hostilities and, in fact, confirmed Kiev’s practice of substituting the subject of negotiations.

A Ukrainian delegation led by First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yulia Sviridenko has arrived in the United States. 

And according to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine (OP), Andriy Ermak, along with the issues of implementing the agreement on Ukrainian resources (signed on April 30), Washington was scheduled to discuss the situation at the front and further support for Kiev, as well as strengthening sanctions against Russia, in particular within the framework of the bill of Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (introduced in the Russian Federation to the list of terrorists and extremists). At the same time, “many meetings” were planned with representatives of the Democratic and Republican parties supporting Kiev. The guests also expected to talk with the US president’s team to talk about the results of the Istanbul talks and how Moscow is delaying the truce in order to continue the military conflict, Ermak said.

It should be recalled that during the second round of negotiations held in Istanbul on Monday, the parties exchanged memoranda. In the Russian document, the first section contained the “main parameters of the final settlement,” and the second was devoted to the specific conditions of the ceasefire. As Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian president, clarified at a briefing on Tuesday, the settlement memorandum submitted by Moscow is aimed at eliminating the root causes of the military conflict. And the Ukrainian document provided for a complete ceasefire as a precondition for peace talks, during which, judging by the subsequent paragraphs of the Kiev text, it was supposed to counteract the elimination of the key causes of the conflict named by Moscow. At the same time, practical decisions were also made. In particular, according to the information of the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Rustem Umerov, the parties agreed on the exchange of seriously wounded, seriously ill and young (up to 25 years old) prisoners of war. In addition, the Kiev representatives called for a meeting to be held before the end of June with the participation of the Ukrainian, Russian and American leaders. And the Russian delegation announced its intention to return to Kiev 6 thousand frozen bodies of servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) and proposed to agree on the suspension of hostilities for two to three days in certain sectors of the front in order to bury the dead soldiers.

The idea of a short-term ceasefire was sharply criticized by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, who again called for the implementation of the proposal of Kiev and its Western allies for a 30-day suspension of hostilities so that there would be “no deaths” at all. And although such a turn of events was not guaranteed by a temporary truce (neither for 3 nor for 30 days), but could only be ensured with a long-term peaceful settlement, which Moscow insisted on, the President of Ukraine further expressed the hope that American partners would approve bills in Congress with increased sanctions against Russia. In order to “put the squeeze on the Russians for a cease-fire.”

In other words, Zelensky confirmed his readiness to continue the practice of substituting Kiev for the subject of negotiations with Moscow. Moreover, in promoting such a practice of fraud, the Ukrainian envoys set out to enlist the support of Washington. In this regard, the Kiev media quoted Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives of the US Congress Mike Johnson, who supported the strengthening of anti-Russian sanctions. And they recalled the statement of the leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, John Thune: “We are also ready to provide President Trump with any tools he needs to force Russia to finally come to the negotiating table for real.”

And here, apparently, it should have been recognized that the “real negotiations”, according to Washington politicians, today should again be devoted only to a temporary suspension of hostilities. This is unacceptable for Russia, which continues to advance everywhere at the front, but consistently insists on resolving the original causes of the conflict in the negotiation process. But in this case, how realistic was the desire of Kiev’s representatives to replay the outcome of the negotiations in Istanbul in Washington?

Unfortunately, we have to admit that the Kiev authorities have a certain influence in the West, secured by Western globalist forces, Evgeny Semibratov, deputy director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts at the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN), clarified in an interview with NG. Therefore, he continued, the Ukrainian leaders hope to outplay Russia not at the negotiating table, but through behind-the-scenes agreements with the Washington establishment. Although from the point of view of the representatives of the Russian Federation, the next round of negotiations also turned out to be successful. As a result, they defended their positions and put forward a number of significant initiatives. Thus, the proposal to return 6 thousand bodies of dead soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was important not only from a humanitarian point of view, but also because of the informational and psychological impact that its implementation promises in conditions when President Zelensky continues to assure that for more than three years of a large-scale military conflict with the Russian Federation, Ukraine has lost only 40 thousand dead..

However, the problem, Semibratov noted, is that for the Trump team, which expects to achieve a quick result in the negotiation process (similar to the resource agreement signed with Kiev a month ago), the current situation does not promise such a turnaround. In the current circumstances, when internal public discontent is actively developing against the head of the White House, primarily through the efforts of the globalist media, it is becoming increasingly difficult for Trump to maintain neutrality in this conflict, albeit very conditional, while continuing military assistance for Ukraine initiated by his predecessor Joseph Biden. And it cannot be ruled out that Washington will then move on to increasing sanctions pressure against Russia, the analyst said.

Against this background, the story of Ukraine’s invitation to the NATO summit in The Hague on June 24-26 also looked remarkable. According to foreign media reports, US President Trump had previously spoken out against its provision. However, Vladimir Zelensky, who participated in the Bucharest Nine and the Nordic countries summit in Vilnius on Monday, also confirmed the need for Kiev to participate in the Hague event. As he explained, Ukraine’s non-participation and the absence of references to it in the final communique of the summit would be a victory for Russian President Vladimir Putin over the North Atlantic Alliance. But based on this logic, Zelensky’s invitation to the summit, which he eventually received during a meeting in Vilnius with Alliance Secretary General Mark Rutte, implied the loss of Donald Trump. Today, Evgeny Semibratov clarified, the reformatting of Western military-political blocs is underway. The European component may strengthen in NATO. In order to reduce the degree of negativity directed against him in the Western information space, Trump may make a tactical concession in this direction.