OLENA ROSHCHINA — WEDNESDAY, 8 JUNE 2022, 14:07
The Kremlin said it is impossible to prepare a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy.
Source: Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, Maiak [Lighthouse] Radio
Peskov’s quote: “Our position is well known. Any summit should be productive and well-prepared.
We know that the Ukrainian side has left the negotiating track. That’s why we don’t talk now about the possibility of preparing such a top-level meeting. “
Why this is important: Volodymyr Zelenskyy is convinced that only Vladimir Putin can end Russia’s war against Ukraine; the Ukrainian president has repeatedly offered the Russian leader a meeting, but Putin refused.
The “impossibility” of holding such a meeting is apparently connected to the fact that Putin is not ready to give up his aggressive intentions despite Russia’s loss in the war; instead, he is trying to seize as much Ukrainian territory as possible in order to “annex” them to Russia.
For Ukraine, talks are actually pointless at the moment, because Russia is not going to withdraw troops, but seeks territorial concessions from Ukraine and [wants it] to abandon its chosen geopolitical course. [Russia] also refuses to even talk about occupied Crimea and Donbas.
Ukraine seeks to liberate the territories of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Kharkiv oblasts, which were occupied at least after February 24, while Russia claims that it is “forever” present in southern Ukraine and dreams of a land route from Russia to Crimea. No one can have a “sense of victory” now.
On 17 May, the parties stated that the talks, even at the delegation level, were “on pause“, and the Ukrainian authorities began to prepare society for the idea that the war would last at least until the end of the year.
