WP: US asks Ukraine to ‘signal openness’ to negotiations with Russia

The US Administration is asking Ukraine’s government to publicly “signal an openness” to negotiations with Russia, The Washington Post reports, citing sources.

According to WP, the aim of this request is not to see Ukraine and Russia at the negotiations table, but to allegedly make sure that Ukraine “maintains the support of other nations facing constituencies wary of fueling a war for many years to come.”

Ukraine’s government is also being encouraged to let go of the rhetoric of negotiations being impossible with the current Russian leader, the newspaper’s interlocutors claim. The refusal to negotiate with Vladimir Putin “has generated concern in parts of Europe, Africa and Latin America, where the war’s disruptive effects on the availability and cost of food and fuel are felt most sharply,” WP reports. 

Still, both Western and Ukrainian officials think that Russia’s statements on the possibility of negotiations are not to be taken seriously.

Lately, Russian politicians have been regularly saying that Russia is ready to negotiate with Ukraine. In particular, Chairwoman of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko and even Russian President Vladimir Putin have called for negotiations.

Before that, Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky approved the decision of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine that banned the possibility of holding negotiations with Vladimir Putin.