Moscow: 'Constructive meeting' between Putin and US envoy

According to Jurij Ushakov, Vladimir Putin's foreign affairs advisor, the meeting in the Kremlin on Friday was positively influenced by the 80th anniversary of another reunion: the one between American and Soviet troops on Elba on 25 April 1945. The three-hour confrontation between Vladimir Putin and Steve Witkoff - Donald Trump's envoy on his fourth visit to Russia in a few weeks - was 'constructive and very useful' in bringing Moscow and Washington's positions on various international fronts and on Ukraine closer together. And here, above all, Ushakov hinted at a step forward: "The discussion," he said, "focused in particular on the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between representatives of the Russian Federation and Ukraine".

Ushakov's words could be linked to the openness expressed in recent days by both Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, who was willing to negotiate with the Russians following the entry into force of a credible ceasefire. With the failure of the first direct negotiations between Russians and Ukrainians after the invasion in February 2022, Zelensky prohibited by decree from negotiating with the Russian president the following October, thus responding to the unilateral annexation of the four partially occupied Ukrainian regions to the Russian Federation.

On the table of a future negotiation, the Russian and Ukrainian negotiators should find the two versions of the so-called 'Trump peace plan': the American one, which legitimises a good part of the Russian demands starting from the formal American recognition of Crimea and the closure of NATO in Kiev, and the one with the Ukrainian and European counter-proposals. Which postpones the discussion on the most controversial issues to a future negotiation, setting as an essential first step a total and unconditional ceasefire.

The full texts of the two draft agreements have been published by the Reuters news agency, and they show the considerable distance that the negotiators will be called upon to narrow in the various areas, from guarantees for Ukraine's security to sanctions and the reimbursement of war damages. The territorial issue, however, remains at the heart of the disputes: and here in the forefront is always the Crimea, which in an interview with Time Magazine yesterday Trump said 'will remain with Russia, and Zelensky understands that'.

Recognising Russian sovereignty over Crimea, the Ukrainians repeat, is a violation of the Constitution but also of international laws on border protection. "Our position is unchanged," Zelensky said yesterday, "only the Ukrainian people have the right to decide which territories are Ukrainian. And the Constitution states that all temporarily occupied territories belong to Ukraine'. Zelensky admitted, however, that the Ukrainian forces are not capable of retaking Crimea militarily: 'It is true what Trump says,' he explained, 'we do not have enough weapons or men. But there are other possibilities: economic and diplomatic pressure'.