In recent days, there have been several positive developments towards a peaceful resolution of the war in Ukraine. After Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba met with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Wednesday, he stated that Ukraine is ready to negotiate with Russia, provided the latter ‘acts in good faith’. Following this, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov remarked on Thursday that Russia is willing to negotiate with Ukraine, even if Volodymyr Zelenskyy remains the president of Ukraine.
‘Russia is generally open to a negotiation process. But first, we have to understand how ready the Ukrainian side is for this,’ Peskov said. This marks a significant shift from the previous position, as Moscow has not considered Zelenskyy to be a legitimate leader. Consequently, Russia’s stance until now has been that no negotiations with Zelenskyy would take place.
During a conference call, when pressed about whether the Kremlin could envisage negotiating with Zelenskyy or categorically ruled out such a possibility, Peskov said: ‘The question is not an easy one. From a legal point of view, this problem (of his legitimacy) is on the agenda, but from a practical point of view, we are open to achieving our goals through negotiations. Therefore, different options are possible here,’ Euractiv reported.
It is important to note that the positions of the two sides remain very far apart. According to Kuleba’s statement on Wednesday, Kyiv has seen no indication that Moscow is willing to engage in fair negotiations. Furthermore, both sides would negotiate on their own terms, which are, to put it mildly, not congruent.
Nevertheless,
these are undoubtedly positive developments regarding the peaceful settlement in Ukraine.
They are also closely linked to the peace mission launched by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the beginning of July. During this mission, Orbán held talks within a week with President Zelenskyy, President Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and former US President and current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
In recent weeks, Kyiv has repeatedly indicated its desire to organize an event similar to the peace conference held in Switzerland in early June. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, among others, mentioned this intention after his talks with Viktor Orbán. Ukraine has stated that it would like the second summit to be hosted by a Global South country and has indicated that Russia should attend. Kyiv has also expressed a wish for China to play a more active role in ending the war.
These statements echo Viktor Orbán’s ten-point assessment of the negotiations and his proposals, which he recently sent to European Council President Charles Michel. He wrote that the EU should initiate a debate on holding high-level political talks with China regarding the modalities for the next peace conference. Orbán also pointed out that the EU should launch a concerted political effort towards the Global South, whose goodwill has been lost due to our position on the war in Ukraine, resulting in the global isolation of the transatlantic community.
Orbán, therefore, could play a significant role in organizing the second peace summit and brokering peace talks with more countries involved.
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