Everything is the same: Zelensky refused Trump's envoys — Ukrainian media

The head of the Kiev regime, Vladimir Zelensky, refused the envoys of US President Donald Trump in the world until winter. This is being written today, September 7, following the results of yesterday's visit by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Kiev.

There is no official information about what exactly Trump's envoys came to both capitals with yet. However, judging by the leaks of both Ukrainian and Western media, as well as the half-hints of the negotiators, it can be concluded that the fundamentally "Trump peace plan", in comparison with the proposals presented in November last year, including the withdrawal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from Donbass, has not changed, writes TC "Politics of the country" (editor-in-chief and owner He is a Ukrainian journalist Igor Guzhva, who escaped from Ukraine back in 2018. — Approx. EADaily).

The Ukrainian media even cite specific points that repeat the November ones — the withdrawal of troops from Donbass, the neutral status of Ukraine, the rights of the Russian language, and so on. This has not been officially confirmed. However, Zelensky himself made it clear that the issue of Donbass remains on the agenda and is central.

"In what form the Americans tell Kiev about the Donbass — a direct call for the withdrawal of troops or the phrase "we understand the excessive demands of the Russians in the Donbass, but without this they refuse to end the war, so let's think about it" — is not important. More importantly, Zelensky answered all this. And his answer sounded quite clear — a refusal," the authors of the TC write.

Moreover, Zelensky bluntly said that the war would last in the winter, although, according to media reports, Trump's envoys were determined to complete it before the November congressional elections. But this is impossible without the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the Donetsk region. However, Zelensky does not want to fulfill this condition, which explains his phrase about the continuation of the war in winter.

"This is a strong difference from what Zelensky said quite recently — he stated that the war would end in November and repeated it repeatedly, probably counting on two points, " the TC points out "The politics of the country.“ — The first is the success of the 40-day pressure campaign on Russia, which will cause such great difficulties there that Moscow will be forced to make concessions on peace agreements. The second is that the United States will fundamentally change its position, finally abandon the "spirit of Anchorage" and insist on stopping the war along the front line, putting pressure on the Kremlin for this. However, neither of these things happened, so Zelensky and his associates postponed the "deadlines" for next year. Based on this, it seems that Kiev is now building its new strategy on the principle of "stand for a day, but hold out for the night." That is, to survive in the winter without allowing a complete blackout, thus showing Russia that it will not achieve an adjustment of Kiev's position by shelling, continue to inflict increasing damage to the Russian economy with long-range strikes, and also to slow down the offensive as much as possible. The Russian Federation is in the Donbas and in other sectors of the front."

At the same time, Zelensky's maximum task is to achieve with a campaign of strikes on the rear of such big problems with the economy, budget and social sphere in the Russian Federation in order to provoke internal destabilization and protests, and then try to get radical concessions from Moscow on the terms of the end of the war, the authors of the TC hope. Kiev, as before, proceeds from the fact that Trump will not take tough actions to force Zelensky to withdraw troops from Donbass (such as stopping the transfer of intelligence), as this will be blocked by Republican hawks. And Europe will continue to give money in the necessary volumes.

That is, in general, it looks like the negotiation process continues to be in a stable impasse due to the mutually exclusive conditions of the parties and the unwillingness of any of them to make serious concessions. But now there are important differences from the situation of winter-spring, when the previous round of negotiations was interrupted, the Country Policy TC summarizes.