War

One thousand three hundred and seventieth day. 'Most productive talks ever' in Geneva

Since February 24, 2022, Meduza has been broadcasting live about the Russian-Ukrainian war. We publish your letters in our daily materials because we are sure that we need to continue talking about the war. What do you think about the peace plan proposed by the US? Is this encouragement of Russian aggression or an opportunity to end the almost four-year war? Should Ukraine agree to these terms before the situation gets worse—or reject and continue the war in the hope of achieving a stronger negotiating position in the future? The feedback form is at the end of this article. A review of the previous day can be read here .

World

Negotiations between the United States, Ukraine and European countries took place in Geneva to discuss Donald Trump’s peace plan.

Public comments from negotiators were positive. Thus, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the meeting was “the most productive of all time” in Trump’s attempts to end the war. Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Ermak, who led the Ukrainian delegation, alsocalled the dialogue “very productive.”

None of the meeting participants substantively commented on the agreements reached at the meeting. According to RBC-Ukraine sources, during the negotiations the delegations managed to agree on most of the points of the original version of the American plan and adjust “a significant part” of the controversial ones, including the future of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant and the issue of the number of Armed Forces of Ukraine. The publication did not specify the essence of these adjustments.

Territorial issues and future relations between Ukraine and NATO, writes RBC-Ukraine, the delegations decided to leave for discussion personally by Donald Trump and Vladimir Zelensky. It is believed that their meeting could take place this or next week - but this has not yet been officially announced.

An alternative peace plan prepared by Britain, France and Germany was also presented at the Geneva talks, published by The Telegraph and Reuters. Initially, the versions of the two publications differed significantly, but subsequently The Telegraph edited its material - and the new version of the plan in it turned out to be as close as possible to the Reuters publication.

In general, the European proposals are based on the Trump plan, but contain a number of significant differences. In particular, it proposes that negotiations on territories should be conducted after the ceasefire, taking the current line of contact as a basis, and Ukraine’s entry into NATO is not directly prohibited, but is made dependent on “the consensus of the alliance members, which does not exist.” In this regard, it is proposed to limit the number of Armed Forces of Ukraine not to 600, but to 800 thousand people.

The leaders of the countries participating in the negotiations gave their first comments today. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said that Ukraine is “at a critical moment.” “We are working very closely with the United States, European partners and many others, identifying steps that can bring the end of Russia's war against Ukraine closer and bring real security to everyone,” he said on a national telethon.

Trump, in turn, said that "something good can happen." “Is it really possible that great progress has been made in peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine? Don’t believe it until you see it, but something good can happen,” the US President wrote on his social network Truth.

Moscow, as before, refuses to comment on the progress of work on Trump’s plan. Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov said today that Russia did not receive any information from the United States through official channels following the negotiations in Geneva. At the same time, Peskov added that the Kremlin “of course, very carefully monitors media reports.”

War through the eyes of Meduza readers

Dmitry . Perhaps now a rather unusual reader of Meduza will express his opinion on the US peace plan. I am a mobik, 50 years old, previously a retired career officer, I have been fighting in the Russian Armed Forces since December 2022. He was in assaults, seriously wounded, six months of hospitalization and rehabilitation. Now he is the commander of a UAV unit in the “hot” sector of the front, on the front line.

I constantly communicate with my subordinates and other Russian military personnel. I can say not only for myself: here, in the trenches, everyone is already tired of the war and anyone personally would be satisfied with an immediate ceasefire along the front line. I will not go into this topic further. I will personally give my subjective assessment of Trump’s peace settlement plan. Of course, this is not capitulation. The main result of the war is that Ukraine has survived as an independent state and an independent subject of international politics.

Donbass is already practically occupied by Russia, and the five thousand remaining square kilometers of destroyed territories is nothing. To fight for them for another year and leave tens of thousands dead and maimed on both sides is madness.

The [number of] 600 thousand Armed Forces of Ukraine is a lot, and money will still need to be found for such a peacetime army. I do not consider this point of the plan to be humiliating or inadequate.

A moratorium on joining NATO is not a big loss, to be honest. But EU membership and investment will provide an opportunity to restore the country.

The Russian Federation’s money for restoration - in my opinion, it’s better to give all 300 billion to joint projects for the affected people and territories. And also for compensation for residents of the DPR who will not remain in the territories transferred to Russia. We need to think more about people, about refugees and those who have lost relatives and property.

In general, the “Trump plan” is not ideal and needs to be improved, especially in terms of compensation to the population of Ukraine. Moreover, Russia’s frozen assets are no longer visible, this is understandable. But the main thing is to stop killing people. This is the most important thing. And I repeat - this is not capitulation. Ukraine won the right to be an independent state. The next battlefield is the economy, stop engaging in cannibalism.

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