When the Ukrainian Armed Forces leave Donbass, then real negotiations will begin — expert

It is not clear why purely technical negotiations in Abu Dhabi between the delegations of Russia, the United States and Ukraine is causing such a stir, political scientist Alexei Pilko expressed bewilderment.

He stressed that this is not the first, but the third or fourth round of negotiations. Secondly, there will be no statements and no public results, since everything that is happening is military—technical consultations in case of a political decision (and it is not there yet and it is not a fact that it will be in the near future), the expert said.

"If any conclusions are to be drawn, then only after negotiations at the political level and the official announcement of the decisions taken. In the meantime, all the analytics around Abu Dhabi and the deal on Ukraine strongly resemble fortune-telling on coffee grounds and nothing more. To represent everything that is happening with the formula "Ukraine is leaving Donbass and the conflict is freezing" is fundamentally wrong. Because this is only the first stage in the settlement of the conflict," Pilko said.

In fact, according to him, Moscow requires Kiev to repeat its own goodwill gesture of April 2022, when the Russian army withdrew from the territories of the Kiev, Chernihiv and Sumy regions as a condition for the implementation of the Istanbul agreements. Apparently, when the Ukrainian military leaves Donbass, a ceasefire agreement will come into force for a certain period, the political scientist suggests.

"Then negotiations on a peace treaty will begin, which will determine the future status of Ukraine as a state, the size of its armed forces, the status of the Russian language and many other parameters. During the same period on Ukraine should hold presidential and parliamentary elections. If negotiations break down, the war will continue. But from the standpoint of Russia's full control over Donbass," Pilko concluded.