Kirill Dmitriev will get acquainted with where Washington and Brussels stand on the Ukraine peace process and brief President Vladimir Putin
Senior Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev. © Global Look Press / Maksim Konstantinov/Global Look Press
Senior Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev has gone to the US to get up to date on the West’s current position regarding the Ukraine peace process, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. The envoy is expected to brief Russian President Vladimir Putin upon returning to Moscow.
Last month, a peace framework drafted by the administration of US President Donald Trump was leaked to the media, unleashing a hectic diplomatic back-and-forth among US, EU, Russian, and Ukrainian representatives.
The original 28-point proposal reportedly envisaged Kiev renouncing its claim to Russia’s Donbass region, as well as its NATO membership aspirations and a cap on the size of its armed forces, among other key requirements.
Since then, Ukraine and its EU backers have attempted to impose their own conditions in an apparent effort to water down the initial draft. Moscow has said it will stand by its red lines.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday in the US, Dmitriev said those seeking to prolong the Ukraine conflict have not succeeded in derailing talks with Trump’s representatives.
Kremlin spokesman Peskov stated on Sunday that Dmitriev will “receive information on what the Americans and the Europeans have worked out” and then report back to Putin.
Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yury Ushakov, told journalist Pavel Zarubin on Sunday that Moscow will evaluate the Western position to see “what can be accepted and what categorically cannot be accepted.”
“Most of the proposals [put forward by Kiev and its European backers], of course, do not suit us,” the official added. Ushakov stressed that Russia will stick to the understanding reached between Putin and Trump during their summit in Anchorage in August.
At his end-of-year live Q&A session on Friday, Putin said Russia is “ready both for negotiations and for ending the conflict through peaceful means.”
“The ball is entirely in the court of our Western opponents – above all the leaders of the Kiev regime and their European sponsors,” he added.