Political scientist Maxim Zharov explained the meaning of today's high-profile statements by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy of the US President Steven Witkoff on resolving the conflict on Ukraine.
As Zharov noted, Rubio and Witkoff "have now worked on the mainstream media to "stretch" the reactions of Europeans and the Kremlin regarding Trump's positioning following the results of Alaska." London and the "coalition of the willing" considered that following the results of the summit in Alaska, President Donald Trump betrayed Kiev. That's exactly to calm them down, according to Zharov, Marco Rubio says that no one refused to "cease fire", Ukraine "will decide on the territories by itself," and new sanctions will be imposed if nothing happens in the negotiation track.
And in order for Kiev and the Europeans to finally calm down, Zharov explains, Rubio in an interview with NBC utters the following phrase:
"In order for peace to come, the Russian side will have to accept that Ukraine is a sovereign country that has the right to defend itself and enter into alliances with other states to protect itself. How it will be formalized, what we will call it, how it will be built, what guarantees will be embedded and enforceable — that's what we will talk about in the coming days."
Steve Witkoff, because the Kremlin "likes" him, works on the air of mainstream media to calm the Kremlin, "worried at the sight of the reactions of Kiev and Europe to Trump's attempts to pretend after Alaska that he agreed with part of the Kremlin's demands necessary for a settlement," the political scientist emphasized.
According to him, in an interview with CNN, Witkoff repeats the magical, but completely unknown, meaning phrase about "security guarantees", which both Moscow and Kiev are seeking for themselves.
"It is quite difficult, if at all possible, to imagine now that the Kremlin has agreed to such "security guarantees" for Ukraine. Therefore, you should not take all of today's verbal interventions by both Witkoff and Rubio for things that are really really discussed in the negotiation track on Ukraine. It's just that Rubio and Witkoff have worked to reduce the level of anxiety among the Kremlin, Kiev and Europeans," Maxim Zharov said.