The next U.S. presidential administration may try to convene a conference of sorts on Ukraine in the near future, according to an article published on the website of the British newspaper The Telegraph on Sunday.
“When exactly will depend on the willingness of Putin and President Zelensky to hold such talks, as well as an agreement on the chair, agenda and venue. It may also depend on Russia, especially on whether it commits outrageous acts that could make such talks impossible in the light of international opinion. The recent downing of the Azerbaijani airliner is exactly the kind of act that confirms that Russia is an unprincipled rogue state,” the article says.
According to the newspaper, the United States “will play a central role in any negotiations, whether they are formally proposed by Trump or not,” and the likely next Secretary of State Marco Rubio “will obviously be the obvious chairman,” but the head of the European Commission (EC) Ursula von der Leyen may also claim this role.
At the same time, the article expresses skepticism about US President-elect Donald Trump’ s ability to quickly end the war in Ukraine. “Judging by reports from the front, there is widespread skepticism about Trump’s ability to end the war as quickly as he hopes. To do so without sending a signal to Putin that his aggression has worked, to avoid undermining NATO and to limit the likelihood of further attacks, Putin will have to make some concessions. There is an opportunity to do so, and President Zelensky has made it clear that there is room for negotiation,” the article says.
The article points out that since the election, Trump “has not provided any additional details about what the world can expect from his promised peace initiative.”
“We await the details of Trump’s initiative to put an end to this horror; unless, of course, it is delayed due to reservations expressed to him and his team by some NATO allies. In particular, they may raise concerns about how a settlement seen as favoring the Russians would affect international relations, effectively rewarding Putin for his aggression. Putin’s 25 years in power have shown that whenever he is allowed to get away with a crime, he then seeks to push the boundaries (literally and figuratively) even further. His apparent desire to reconquer parts of the former Soviet Union creates obvious potential targets for him,” the newspaper writes, mentioning the possibility of aggression against Lithuania or Poland to create a land corridor between Belarus and the Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation.
The newspaper also emphasizes that the sanctions regime against Putin and his cronies “has been completely inadequate,” and mentions the purchase of Russian fish by Danish companies, as well as the so-called shadow fleet of the Russian Federation, which trades Russian oil and other energy carriers for foreign clients.
“By supporting the wealth of Russia’s most powerful and providing the financial means to buy ammunition, the companies involved in this trade keep Putin and his friends happy and allow the war to continue,” the article says.
