Russian Senate Speaker says peace talks likely to take place next year
- 2 December, 11:12
The Speaker of Russia’s Federation Council, Valentina Matviyenko, has said she expects peace talks with Ukraine to start in 2025 after the President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
“The likelihood of a genuine attempt to start such negotiations and meetings in 2025 is much higher than the likelihood that no such attempt will be made,” Valentina Matviyenko told local Argumenty i Fakty newspaper on Monday.
The Speaker of the upper legislative house went on saying that “We must not and will not make the subject of negotiations any one-day half-measures, agreements of an unclear status, short-term freezes and so on.” Matviyenko did not rule out the Ukraine-Russia talks will be affected by the outgoing Biden administration’s“escalation” of the conflict. The escalation the Speaker refers to implies Biden’s authorization of Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles in strikes deep into Russia.
“The leaders of the negotiation process on the other side will have to show certain strong qualities. How ready they’ll be, I don’t know,” Matviyenko went on saying. It should be noted that US president-elect Trump has promised a “swift” end to the Russia-Ukraine war once he is inaugurated in January.
Moscow and Kyiv have not engaged in peace talks since Russia’s full-fledged invasion of Ukraine in February in 2022. Matviyenko’s statement comes amid increased tension in the frontline. Last week, Vladimir Putin threatened to strike Ukraine with Oreshnik missile in response to Joe Biden’s lifting limits on Kyiv’s use of US-supplied long-range missiles. Commenting on possible Oreshnik attack, Matviyenko said it was a message “deciphered by specific people that will determine policy on Ukraine, security policy and Washington’s foreign policy after Jan. 20, 2025.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday he needed security guaranteed from NATO and more weapons to defend itself.
