Russia and Ukraine apparently wanted to send diplomats to Qatar in August to discuss an agreement that would end attacks on the energy and power supply infrastructure of both sides. Washington PostHowever, the negotiations are said to have been abruptly postponed due to the Ukrainian advance into the Russian region of Kursk. Russia has vehemently denied the report. Within Ukraine, however, a completely different aspect is causing excitement.
The plans of the presidential office in Kiev to negotiate a deal with Russia should not have remained secret, said the former Ukrainian ambassador to the USA and France, Oleh Shamshur, in a radio interview. “The details of these negotiations can of course remain confidential, but making a secret of their existence during a war is completely inappropriate,” said the 68-year-old.
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Criticism of Selenskyj: Too little transparency, too much backroom dealing
According to Shamshur, the Ukrainian public was not sufficiently involved in possible negotiation processes with the Russians. “Why do Washington Post journalists know about this, but Ukrainian journalists or the Ukrainian public do not?” criticizes the Ukrainian diplomat.
The Ukrainian compares the negotiations on a possible Ukrainian-Russian ceasefire with the negotiations in the Middle East. “Between Israel and other parties to the conflict, the details of the talks are also unknown. But the fact that negotiations are taking place at all is public, and the opportunities and risks are being discussed in detail in Israel and around the world,” says Shamshur. For the former ambassador, the strategy of the political leadership in Kiev is characterized by too little transparency and too much backroom tactics.
“In this case, important issues are at stake for Ukrainian society,” says Shamshur, “and in my opinion, it has the right to know the positions and expectations of such talks.”
An agreement to stop attacks on each other’s energy infrastructure would be a landmark achievement for joint diplomatic efforts, as it would have meant a limited ceasefire. According to the report, the Qataris would act as mediators and meet separately with the Ukrainian and Russian delegations.
A diplomat told the Washington Post that Russian officials postponed their meeting with their Qatari counterparts after Ukraine’s invasion of western Russia. Moscow’s delegation called the Ukrainian move an “escalation,” the diplomat said, adding that Kyiv had not warned Qatar about its offensive.
War situation in Eastern Europe: Russia occupies about a fifth of Ukraine – Ukraine, on the other hand, conquered a 1000 square kilometer area in Western Russia with its Kursk Offensive.Graphic: BLZ.
Grain agreement as a model for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine?
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian leadership is confident after almost two weeks of the Kursk offensive. In Kiev, there is an assumption that the attacks on the western Russian region will strengthen Ukraine’s negotiating position for any negotiations. “In the Kursk region, we can clearly see how military means are being used objectively to persuade Russia to accept a fair negotiation process,” said presidential adviser Mikhailo Podolyak.
As the American daily newspaper Politico reported that Kyiv is using the grain deal model, which enabled the export of Ukrainian food across the Black Sea for months, as a model for possible peace negotiations or ceasefires. Ukraine and Russia agreed separate agreements at the time under the mediation of the United Nations and Turkey – there have been no direct Russian-Ukrainian talks since the Istanbul peace talks in spring 2022.
Black Sea.” loading=”lazy” width=”5108″ height=”3405″ decoding=”async” data-nimg=”1″ style=”color:transparent;width:100%;height:auto” sizes=”(max-width: 1240px) 90vw, 872px” srcset=” 353w, 470w, 640w, 705w, 940w, 1080w, 1240w, 1410w, 1880w” src=””/>Until it expires in summer 2023, the Grain Agreement regulated the export of agricultural products via the Black Sea.Ukrinform/imago
The head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andriy Yermak, also said in an interview with European Truththat Ukrainian diplomats and security experts are working on a timetable for possible ceasefire talks, taking the grain agreements of recent years as a guide.
“We did not negotiate with Russia. We negotiated with Turkey and the United Nations, and they negotiated with Russia. It was a success,” says Yermak. “The corridor was in operation for a year – there were many problems, but it worked. We have to acknowledge that. A similar format could be used again.”
However, after the start of the Kursk offensive, Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected any negotiations with Ukraine. Even a second peace summit initiated by Ukraine, which is to take place in the autumn, is “unacceptable” for Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in view of the situation in Kursk. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, on the other hand, hopes that – if Moscow does not attend the second summit – friendly countries of Russia will attend the meeting and represent the Kremlin’s positions. At the first peace summit, which took place in Switzerland in June, the West remained almost entirely among itself – Russia and China were not present, and other countries in the Global South only sent lower-ranking diplomats.
