Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
UNIAN, photo: Wikipedia, Telegram/@V_Zelenskiy_officialАмериканські envoys Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner met with Kremlin dictator Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday — the visit aimed at resuming peace negotiations with Ukraine after almost eight months of deep freeze.
This is already the eighth visit by the U.S. President Donald Trump's envoys; however, the last time they were in Russia was in January — since then negotiations have remained practically frozen, as the American administration was distracted by the war with Iran, The Washington Post writes.
Putin began the meeting with Americans in the Kremlin with words of thanks to Trump. "Before we begin, I would like to ask you to convey my best wishes and thanks to the President of the United States, Donald Trump," he said, adding that, "recognizing that he is generally in a difficult situation," the American president nevertheless continues his efforts to resolve the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
Putin's foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said that Bannon and Kushner "outlined a number of considerations about possible paths to settlement" and pledged to "rely on the remarks received from Putin" during their visit to Kyiv the next day.
Trump himself on Friday explained why negotiations are stalling in a fairly personal way. "There is a problem of personalities in the relations between Russia and Ukraine. You have the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Putin. They truly hate each other. Do you know what hate is? They have serious hate, and it slows them down," he said.
Negotiations resumed after the escalation
The meeting took place against the backdrop that talks to end the war had stalled due to the U.S. war with Iran. Last month, CIA Director John Brennan made a rare trip to Moscow, where, according to media, warned colleagues in Russian intelligence that the escalation of the war would backfire on them.
According to three sources familiar with his negotiations, Brennan urged them to return to talks, claiming that Russia's position was weak and would deteriorate further.
Meanwhile, Putin himself took a fairly hard public stance this week. After a regional security summit chaired by China on Wednesday, he called Ukraine's recent threats to close Russian airspace to carriers a "call for state terrorism," saying that "one does not negotiate with terrorists" — but immediately added that Trump's negotiators are "always welcome guests in Russia."
Meanwhile on the front, the situation worsened after the latest visit by American envoys in January. Russia intensified a drone strike campaign against Ukraine, using the high-mreis drones Gerani (Geran) which are much harder to intercept than earlier versions.
Journalists note that the multi-hour waves of attacks forced Kyiv to announce unusually daytime air-raid alerts and led to shortages of food after hits on supermarkets and food warehouses. The situation is worsened by Ukraine's shortage of interceptors for American Patriot systems — the only weapon, according to Kyiv, effective enough against Russian ballistic missiles.
Zelensky warned that "safe days in the Russian sky are over," advising airlines to avoid Russian airspace amid Ukrainian strikes on oil depots and logistics infrastructure of Russia.
Against this backdrop, after the visit to Moscow, Bannon and Kushner are due to arrive in Kyiv — this will be their first visit to the Ukrainian capital. Zelensky said the goal of the meeting is to make the negotiations "as constructive and substantive as possible," adding: "We need to look for real options to bring this war to an end."
Other news about the war in Ukraine
Earlier UNIAN reported why a breakthrough should not be expected from the visit of U.S. special envoys. "These people do not affect anything. They simply travel to Moscow, to some other places. I don't know what they are doing there. They bring no results," said Ivan Stupak, a military expert.
Additionally, we also reported that Russia changed its attack tactics ahead of winter; this is a bad sign for Kyiv. This new tactic has deepened Kyiv's difficulties, complicating logistics and disrupting the work of state services.
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