US and NATO Officials Struggle to Decipher Status of Russia-Ukraine Peace Talks
US and NATO officials believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin has not backed down from his original demands for peace talks with Ukraine, and there is a strong dose of skepticism in Western capitals about the credibility of Moscow’s compromise, even as the status of those negotiations remains elusive, according to multiple sources briefed on the situation.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky recently indicated that he is willing to consider some concessions to Russia to help end the violence, including a policy of neutrality, albeit backed by strong security guarantees, raising further questions about the state of the talks and the specific elements of any peace agreement that may be under consideration.
“I am ready to negotiate with (Putin). I have been prepared for the last two years. And I believe that without negotiations, we cannot end this war,” Zelensky told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria in an exclusive interview Sunday morning. But he warned that if any attempt at negotiation fails, it could mean that fighting between the two countries could lead to “a third world war.”
Ukrainian and Russian negotiators have met four times since the start of the Russian invasion.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov touched on the possibility of Ukraine accepting neutrality status during a media event in Moscow on Saturday, saying that “after our operation in Ukraine ends, and I hope that ends with the signing of a global agreement on the issues I have mentioned: security issues, Ukraine’s neutral status with the guarantees of its security, just as the president (Putin) did a couple of months ago, if not I remember correctly, he commented at a press conference on our NATO non-expansion initiative, he said that we understood that every country needs guarantees of its security,” Lavrov said.
But details about the negotiations remain scant and many NATO countries, and the United States, remain on the sidelines of the secret peace talks, with a European defense official calling the negotiations “a bit of a dark track at the moment.” .
The Biden administration still sees no sign that Putin is willing or prepared to de-escalate the conflict, making it difficult for US officials to be optimistic about the current state of negotiations, a source familiar with the situation said.
But at the same time, this source also said that the US is not pressuring Ukraine to accept or reject specific concessions and is not involved in the negotiation process.
CNN has contacted the US National Security Council for comment but has not received a response.
Kylie Atwood and Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report