Expectations were high, but even after five hours of meeting, nothing conclusive came out of the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump’s envoy for peace negotiations in Ukraine. Steve Witkoff was even forced to take a walk around Moscow to enjoy the Christmas decorations, as the Russian head of state was scheduled to attend an investor forum and was not going to change his schedule to welcome an American.
When you want to make peace — and the President of the United States of America (USA), regardless of his reasons for doing so, seems to be invested in it — you need patience and normalization of behaviors that may not be protocol in the field of diplomacy.
Despite the pressure exerted on Kiev in the last week, the Ukrainians did not give in to hand over territoriessomething Putin explicitly demanded this weekend on a visit to the front line. “Still andWe are receiving proposals to cease hostilities here, there and everywhere. When Ukrainian troops abandon the territories they occupy, hostilities will cease. If they don’t leave, we will achieve this through military means,” he told journalists who accompanied him on the trip, quoted by the Russian news agency TASS.
Some notes of hope
NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, preferred to look at the hopeful side of this moment, insisting that “peace talks continue”, although he admits he does not know “when they will end”. The Atlantic Alliance, he said this Wednesday in Brussels, must be ready to continue supporting Ukraine “in resisting the Russians”.
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesperson quoted by BBCstated that this visit marked the first time that a prolonged exchange of views between Russia and the US was possible, and that Putin did not reject any proposal. “Some things were accepted, others were considered unacceptable. It’s a normal process of work and seeking compromise”, said Peskov, without wanting to reveal any content of the long meeting: “The more silence there is around these negotiations, the more productive they will be”, he concluded.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shows no signs of letting his guard down. This Wednesday he promised to “work constructively in the search for true peace”, while announcing the sending of his security advisor Rustem Umerov, former Defense Minister, to a meeting with other European security advisors in Brussels.
In a publication on platform Soon, a new Ukrainian delegation is expected to travel to Washington.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (equivalent to Minister of Foreign Affairs) confirmed “some progress” in talks with Moscow. “What we tried, and I think we made some progress, was to understand what the Ukrainians could accept, in order to guarantee them security in the future”, he said in an interview with Sean Hannity, from Fox News. He added that the US hopes the commitment will allow Ukrainians “not only to rebuild the economy, but to prosper as a country”.
European ministers warn: it is “obvious” that Putin does not want peace
The Foreign Ministers of the European NATO countries are also in Brussels, and they adopt a clear tone of impatience. “What we see is that Putin has changed absolutely nothing. He is advancing even more aggressively on the battlefield. It is obvious that he does not want any model of peace,” said Estonian minister Margus Tsahkna, quoted by the Associated Press agency. His colleague from Finland, Elina Valtonen, echoed the idea: “So far we have not seen any concessions from the aggressor, which is Russia, and I think the best confidence-building measure would be to start with a complete ceasefire.”
The Kremlin spokesman thanked Trump for calling the talks, saying that European Union leaders did not participate because they “remain obsessed with the idea of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia.”
On a less effusive note, the President of Finland, Alexander Stubb, a man Trump listens to, said, in an interview with Finnish television, mentioned by the newspaper “The Guardian”that the peace that is achieved will hardly be fair. Europeans are working to preserve Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, but “the reality is that peace can be good, bad, or some kind of compromise.”
EU reaches political agreement to end Russian gas imports by 2027
Meanwhile, negotiators from the European Parliament and Member States reached an agreement to ban all imports of Russian gas by autumn 2027. The aim is to cut off one of the main sources of financing for Moscow’s war machine, reported the agency France Presse.
The agreement took place in the early hours of this Wednesday and is being defined with good common progress, in an area that is always complicated, that of energy supply. The European Parliament asked for a more ambitious calendar, but it was the possible compromise.
“We did it: Europe is turning off the tap to Russian gas, forever”, wrote the European Commissioner for Energy, Dan Jorgensen, on the social network X. The pact foresees that the European Commission will present, in the coming months, a plan to end imports of Russian oil by Hungary and Slovakia by the end of 2027.
Despite the sanctions, Moscow has already raised 107 billion euros from gas sales to the EU since the start of the invasion, more than half of its total gas export revenues. Portugal is one of the countries that receive it. Peskov responded, stating that “it will only accelerate the process, which has been taking place in recent years, of the European economy losing its leadership potential”.