Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
Are we really surprised by that?
Several diplomatic pushes to end the fighting in Ukraine have so far been unsuccessful.
The latest attempts were the trilateral meetings between the US, Russia and Ukraine during the winter, but the war is still raging.
And if the latest remarks from Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, are any indication, any hope of a negotiated peace in Ukraine has now been thrown out the window.
No room for talk
The Kyiv Post cites Lavrov as saying that he made it clear that “Right now, everything depends not on negotiations, but on the actions of our heroes on the front lines”.
He argued that continued Western military aid and long-range weapons deliveries leave no room for peace talks. Instead, the Kremlin is pinning its hopes entirely on battlefield victories.
The diplomat also took aim at European leaders. He pointed to their recent political and military backing of Ukraine at the E3 plus Ukraine summit as proof that the West wants to keep fighting.
A public letter
The latest diplomatic freeze follows an open letter from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Last week, Zelensky publicly called for a direct meeting with Vladimir Putin to find a way to end the war.
In his message, the Ukrainian leader proposed a bilateral summit in a neutral country. He also offered a major concession to get things started. “Ukraine is ready for a full ceasefire for the duration of the negotiations,” Zelensky said.
His proposal included other conditions as well. He called for a complete exchange of all prisoners and asked for broader security guarantees from both the United States and Europe.
Mocked and dismissed
But Moscow quickly dismissed the entire effort as a publicity stunt. Lavrov claimed that a genuine proposal would have been sent through secret, closed channels rather than published for the world to see.
“That’s probably not how polite people act,” Lavrov said regarding the public letter. He added that Putin “interpreted this letter more as an indication that Ukraine doesn’t need negotiations.”
Putin himself mocked the offer during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. The Russian president noted that he reviewed the letter on June 5 but decided that such a meeting would be pointless, claiming Kyiv only wanted to halt the Russian offensive.
The Kremlin later added a mocking jab on Telegram, telling the Ukrainian president that if he really wants to meet, “he can come to Moscow.”
