Bloomberg: Russia plans to exit talks if Ukraine does not agree to give up Donbas
Russia is likely to leave peace talks if Ukraine does not agree to withdraw its troops from the whole of Donbas.
Source: Bloomberg, citing sources from the Russian side
Details: According to the media outlet's sources, Russian officials increasingly believe there is no point in continuing US-mediated peace talks with Ukraine if Kyiv is not ready to concede territory to reach a deal.
Two people close to the Kremlin told Bloomberg that talks scheduled for next week will be decisive in understanding whether parties can agree on terms for ending the war. They said Russia is likely to abandon further talks if President Volodymyr Zelenskyy does not make concessions.
One of these sources said that Russia is ready to sign a draft memorandum on a peace agreement if Ukraine agrees to withdraw its troops from Donetsk Oblast. After this, a trilateral meeting between leaders of the US, Ukraine and Russia – US President Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin – could take place quickly to confirm an agreement that would involve the mutual withdrawal of Russian and Ukrainian troops.
One source said that Russia is ready to withdraw its troops from the occupied parts of Sumy, Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts of Ukraine as part of the agreement and "will not insist on demands for additional territories" in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.
The same source said that Russia will agree to US-led monitoring of the ceasefire and will also drop the demand to limit the size of Ukrainian armed forces but will not agree to any foreign troops in Ukraine.
Four sources in Moscow told Bloomberg that the agreement supported by Russia resembles proposals first put forward by Steve Witkoff during his trip to Moscow shortly before the August summit between Putin and Trump in Alaska.
The sources also add that Witkoff told Putin that the US would put pressure on Ukraine to give up Donbas if Russia agrees to freeze the war at existing positions and drop its claims to the Ukrainian-controlled parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts.
Background:
- Zelenskyy said in December that the 20-point plan for a peaceful settlement of the war unleashed by Russia against Ukraine is 90% ready.
- On 26 February, he said that the next meeting in the Ukraine-US-Russia format is most likely to take place in the UAE in early March.
- In one of his latest interviews, Zelenskyy said that he sees a window of opportunity to end the Russian war against Ukraine before the US midterm elections in November.
- Zelenskyy said after a trilateral meeting between Ukraine, the US and Russia in Geneva on 17-18 February that there has been some progress in the military component of the talks.
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