(AFP) – A top US envoy on Monday touted progress in weekend discussions with Ukraine and Russia, raising the prospect of reviving three-way peace talks to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky met separately with top US envoys in a renewed push to end the fighting, which began when Russian forces invaded neighboring Ukraine more than four years ago.
“Substantive progress was made, including movement on scheduling additional trilateral talks,” US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff wrote on X. Witkoff, a business ally of US President Donald Trump, traveled to Russia and Ukraine over the weekend alongside negotiating partner Jared Kushner, who is Trump’s son-in-law. Sunday’s appearance in Kyiv was their first official trip to the Ukrainian capital.
A senior Ukrainian official told AFP on Sunday that the two envoys had brought new and “more effective” proposals on ending the war, but Zelensky warned that fighting appeared likely to continue into the winter. The Kremlin on Monday did not rule out three-way talks with the United States and Ukraine aimed at ending the conflict. “But it is too early to say anything about the venue or the exact dates at this stage,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Also on Monday, Zelensky said he and his negotiating team were “coordinating our next steps” following the talks with Trump’s envoys and European officials, but the Ukrainian leader did not elaborate on what those steps would be. Negotiators from Moscow and Kyiv last met for US-mediated talks in Geneva in February, but did not reach an agreement on territorial issues.
Diplomatic efforts led by Washington have slowed in recent months as the Trump administration shifted focus toward the war with Iran. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched in February 2022, and the subsequent years of fighting have left hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians dead. The war has displaced millions of people, ravaged Ukraine’s economy, put Russia’s military under massive strain and has led to the expanded use of drone warfare.
The UN rights chief Volker Turk expressed alarm on Monday at reports of fully autonomous drones killing people in Ukraine and called for an urgent ban on weapons that can kill without human involvement. While Kyiv has faced near-nightly attacks, Ukraine has also escalated its retaliatory strikes on Russia in recent months, in part to try to pressure Moscow into coming to the negotiating table. Talks remain deadlocked in part over the issue of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, which Russia does not fully control but has demanded as part of any peace settlement.
© 2024 AFP
