urgency of peace negotiations
The meeting on Saturday took place at a time when the White House increasingly puts pressure on the situation to achieve a peace deal. After his arrival in Rome, Trump said that Russia and Ukraine were "very close" to an agreement to end the Three Years' War. This was done after talks between his special sentence and President Vladimir Putin on Friday, which were referred to by Moscow as "constructive"
direct conversations between Kyiv and Moscow
So far, there have been no direct meetings between Kiev and Moscow since the early weeks of the Russian invasion in February 2022. Any direct discussions would probably require further discussions and the diplomacy that Trump administration had hoped for to achieve results within a few days.
visits and different peace plans
Trump's special -sentenced Steve Witkoff spoke to Putin in Kremlin for three hours on Friday. Yuri Ushakov, a advisor to the Russian President, informed the press that the conversations were "constructive and very useful". Witkoff's visit to Russia was his fourth trip since Trump's return to the White House in January and fell into a critical phase. The self -imposed time frame Trump to end the war within the first 100 days of his term.
Different visions of a peace agreement
As CNN reported on Friday, the current negotiations are based on two different visions of a peace agreement: one is supported by Ukraine and its European allies, the other from the Trump administration. A European civil servant said that the Ukrainian and European proposal provided for an armistice and subsequent discussions about territorial questions, whereby Kiev should receive defense commitments from his allies based on Article 5 of NATO.
controversy about the Crimea
Witkoff's version suggested that the United States acknowledge the crimin as Russian, grant "robust security guarantees" for Ukraine, but should not join NATO and the sanctions against Russia should be repealed. This recognition of Russian control over the Crimea, which was illegally annexed in 2014, would be an enormous red line for Ukraine and its European allies. In addition, it would reverse a decade of US foreign policy.
Zelenskyj's rejection and the pressure of the USA
Selenskyj rejected the proposal this week and explained that there was "nothing to discuss" because such recognition disrupted the Ukrainian constitution. The United States has increasingly put pressure on Ukraine in the past few days after threatening to cancel the talks within "days" if it becomes clear that there is no agreement.
Reporting by CNNS Max Rego and Jedd Rosche.
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