Ukraine does not have an independent position in negotiations with Russia, as it is in the position of being led by the United States and Great Britain.
This was announced on May 17 by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the New Horizons educational marathon.
“We have information coming through various channels that the Ukrainian negotiators are being “led”, Washington and London especially regulate their freedom of maneuver,” he said.
Evidence of this is the sharp change in the position of the Ukrainian side after the talks in Istanbul, where for the first time in the entire period of previous contacts, it handed over to Russia a “paper” containing principles “which the Russian side was ready to take as a basis” in order to develop an agreement further.
“But literally a day later, the Ukrainian side played back.
Moreover, before she played, there was a provocation with a staged situation in the city of Bucha.
The West immediately after this Bucha, without understanding anything, demanded an investigation, but already before the investigation, it imposed sanctions, another package.
This was clearly a signal that Ukrainian initiative, perhaps, which manifested itself in the transfer to us of acceptable principles for reaching agreements, was not supported in the West, ”the minister explained.
At the same time, he noted that it is pointless to transfer negotiations on the future of Ukraine to the level of London and Washington, since they, together with Brussels, "declared their goal to defeat Russia."
“In addition, neither London, nor Washington, nor the West as a whole put forward any proposals,” Lavrov said.
In light of this, he stressed that the current conflict is not in the Russia-Ukraine plane, but in the Russia-West plane.
And Western countries do not need Ukraine in itself, and therefore they consider it as “expendable material” in a hybrid war against the Russian Federation, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
In his opinion, this is also supported by the fact that the West does not seek to provide security guarantees to Kyiv.
“According to our information, they have not received assurances from the West that the West is ready to subscribe to such guarantees of Ukraine's security.
Which also suggests that the West doesn’t really need Ukraine, except as a springboard for constant irritation of the Russian Federation, for creating threats to our security,” the minister said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
© Evgeny Odinokov
Blurring provisions
Meanwhile, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Andrey Rudenko on the sidelines of the II Central Asian Conference of the Valdai International Discussion Club on the same day said that negotiations between Russia and Ukraine are not currently underway.
Kyiv has not provided a response to the draft treaty proposed by Russia.
At the same time, the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov announced on April 20 that the Russian Federation handed over the document to Ukraine.
And Kyiv confirmed its receipt on the same day.
Later, in an interview with TASS, Andrei Rudenko noted that the Ukrainian side today "is trying to blur the provisions that, it would seem, have already been agreed upon at previous stages."
The suspension of the dialogue was also confirmed in Ukraine.
Advisor to the head of the presidential office, Mikhail Podolyak, on the air of the telethon on May 17, said that the reason was the lack of any progress after the Istanbul communiqué.
At the same time, he expressed confidence that “any war will end at the negotiating table” and that President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky will supposedly moderate this process.
Podolyak also stressed that Kyiv is not ready to give Russia any territory.
In his opinion, "any "Minsk-2" is a postponed war."
The Ukrainian president himself still cannot decide on the format of negotiations with the Russian Federation.
So, in an interview with the Italian TV channel Rai 1 on May 13, he said that he was ready for a dialogue, but only directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin "without any intermediaries."
At the same time, he noted that the dialogue "is impossible without a tough and strong position of foreign partners."
Potential escalation
The fact that the West has its finger on the pulse of the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations is evidenced by the remarks of the US and UK representatives themselves.
In particular, The Times newspaper published on March 31 an article in which its sources in the British government claimed that London opposed the too early, in its opinion, peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine.
According to them, the government believes that before holding peace talks, Kyiv should take the strongest possible position from a military point of view.
Later, the United States spoke about the lack of prospects for a Russian-Ukrainian dialogue.
This, in particular, was stated on May 10 by the head of the country's National Intelligence, Avril Haynes, at a hearing in the Senate Armed Forces Committee.
Negotiations of the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul
RIA News
© Sergey Karpukhin
"Because both Russia and Ukraine believe they can continue to make progress militarily, we do not see a viable path to negotiations, at least in the short term," she said.
Haynes also opined that in the next few months the situation in Ukraine "may develop in a more unpredictable direction and potentially escalate."
In turn, US Charge d'Affaires in Ukraine Christina Quinn, in an interview with the ICTV Facts portal on May 14, said that Washington could support a peace agreement between Moscow and Kyiv only if it was acceptable to Ukraine.
“There can be no diplomatic solution in which Ukraine loses and Russia wins.
For this is an unacceptable option ... I would like Russia and Ukraine to reach a peace agreement that Ukraine would recognize as acceptable, ”she stressed.
"Completely unreliable"
Kyiv's dependence on Western partners in the issue of making peace with Russia is also confirmed by experts interviewed by RT.
“Without the advice of London and Washington, Kyiv will not do anything, because they are completely dependent players, unable to make decisions and command their own armed forces.
And the fact that the Ukrainian side suspended the negotiations is their problem, because they were given many different options in the negotiations and even tried to meet them halfway, ”said Alexander Dudchak, an expert at the Institute of CIS Countries, in an interview with RT.
However, he stressed, it is not in the interests of the collective West that this "suicidal war" be stopped.
The jurist Vadim Yegorov shares his opinion, noting that the United States and its allies consider Ukraine only as a weapon against the Russian Federation.
“Ukraine is a bargaining chip, a testing ground for the fight against Russia,” the analyst believes.
Political scientist Yury Bondarenko spoke in the same vein, emphasizing that Kyiv is not independent in its negotiating position.
In turn, the West, in pursuit of geopolitical interests, is pushing Ukraine to continue the confrontation with Russia, not at all caring about the price Kyiv will have to pay for it, the expert believes.
“The West needs to weaken Russia as much as possible, and Ukrainian well-being in this context is completely uninteresting to it.
The West is ready to continue to allocate billions to Kyiv, if only it remains a lever of pressure on the Russian Federation.
Therefore, they don’t think about any negotiations there, ”the expert explained in an interview with RT.
He also noted that it is pointless for Ukraine to expect from Western countries the security guarantees that it demands today: in its view, they should be almost similar to those of NATO.
“But they will not provide guarantees equivalent to the Fifth Article of the NATO Charter.
After all, this is fraught with entry into a military conflict with Russia, which no one in the West wants.
Because there is no certainty that such a war will be won, not to mention a global nuclear one,” Bondarenko summed up.