Ukraine, Russia and the United States held first round of trilateral talks since Moscow’s full-scaled invasion began in February 2022.
During the meeting held in the United Arabic Emirates on Friday, Russia reiterated its earlier demands that Ukrainian forces pull out of the country’s eastern Donetsk region as a precondition for a peace deal. "Russia's position is well known: Ukraine and its armed forces must leave the Donbas. They must be withdrawn," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, stressing that “this is a very important condition."
The meeting came after the seventh meeting of US President Donald Trump's senior envoy Steve Witkoff with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday. Ushakof described the meeting as “exceptionally constructive, substantial, however, warned that the long-term settlement of the conflict was impossible without “resolving the territorial issue”. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner accompanied Witkoff in the meeting.
Earlier on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the fate of Ukraine’s Russian-occupied eastern industrial region of Donetsk was the last issue standing in the way of a cease-fire agreement. "It's all about the eastern part of our country. It's all about the land. This is the issue which we have not solved yet,” Zelenskiy stressed.
Friday’s talks in Abu Dhabi, UAE are the highest-level known summit between the three sides since the start of the nearly four-year-war. Zelenskiy confirmed that the format was happening “for the first time in a long time.”
Comments
Leave a Reply
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *