Putin ‘does not want to upset’ Trump and is ‘ready to discuss’ peace ideas, Zelensky says

Filed 1h ago · Via Meduza · The Buffoon Desk

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Waltz Primordial

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Jan Saenredam / After Hendrik Goltzius · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Axios that U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner discussed de-escalation steps with both Moscow and Kyiv ahead of and during the coming winter. Zelensky said the envoys' goals included reviving stalled peace talks and trying to prevent the kind of intensified attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure seen in past winters.

Zelensky said he still expects Russia to target that infrastructure again this fall and winter, but claimed Vladimir Putin does not want to upset Donald Trump and is ready to discuss ideas for moving negotiations forward. The envoys visited Moscow on September 5 and Kyiv on September 6, their first Kyiv visit since the war began, with no major breakthroughs announced.

After the meetings, Zelensky said he does not expect the war to end this year.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Ready to discuss ideas is the diplomatic equivalent of a landlord saying he's open to fixing the roof someday. It costs nothing to say and commits to nothing at all. If Moscow's restraint depends entirely on not annoying one man in Washington, that's not a peace process, that's a mood to be managed, and moods change with the weather.

Source: Read the original at Meduza → Scored: Waltz Primordial · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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