Ukraine war negotiations unlikely
Kyiv and Moscow want talks to be on their own terms
The Ukraine war enters its third year with prospects of negotiation unlikely, according to analysts and diplomats.
Fyodor Lukyanov, head of the Kremlin-linked Council on Foreign and Defense Policy think tank in Moscow told Agence France-Presse, “There’s nothing they can negotiate about.”
Putin told right-wing American talk show host Tucker Carlson in a recent interview in Moscow that he is urging the United States to discuss a deal that would allow Russia to control 20 percent of Ukraine’s territory.
“Sooner or later we’ll come to an agreement anyway,” the Russian leader said.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, reiterated Kyiv’s long-held position that no negotiations were possible until Russia withdraws from occupied territories.
A European diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, also ruled out any talks under the current circumstances.
“Negotiations can only take place when Ukraine is in a position of strength on the ground,” said the diplomat.
Meanwhile, 11 Ukrainian children crossed the border from Belarus to Ukraine Tuesday evening, in the latest return of children taken to Russia and occupied territories during the nearly two-year Ukraine war.
Emerging from the darkness at a humanitarian crossing on the Belarus border, the children hugged family members who had been waiting for more than six hours.
Oleksandr, 16, is the oldest among those returned by Moscow through a Qatar-mediated scheme.
“My new life is starting,” he said, smiling shyly and describing the “joy and slight nerves.”
The children were received by the Qatari embassy in Moscow on Monday before traveling to Belarus and walking across the one-kilometer border zone — while some relatives were able to meet the children directly in Moscow.
Two critically ill children were brought over in an ambulance and rushed to hospital.
Ukraine estimates 20,000 children have been forced to Russia since the war erupted in February 2022.
The group of children is the fourth and largest to have been returned with Qatar’s help and included some as young as two, Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets told AFP at the border.