Translated material
War
One thousand three hundred and ninety-six days. Moscow and Kyiv are discussing a “peace plan” in Florida. Separate from each other
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. Share with us the thoughts you have about the war. What feelings are you experiencing? How does war affect you, your life, the lives of your loved ones and your attitude towards the world? The feedback form is at the end of this article. A review of the previous day can be read here .
World
The Ukrainian delegation held another round of consultations on the updated “peace plan” of the Donald Trump administration on December 19 in Miami.
From Kyiv, the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov and the Head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Andrey Gnatov were present at the negotiations. On the American side, the meeting was attended by Presidential Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. In addition, European representatives - national security advisers from Great Britain, France and Germany - were involved in the consultations, sources told AFP.
Umerov said that he had already informed the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky about the results of the negotiations. “We agreed with our American partners on further steps and continuation of joint work in the near future,” the secretary of the Ukrainian Security Council wrote on social networks.
Meanwhile, the special representative of the Russian President Kirill Dmitriev went to Miami. There, on December 20-21, he, at the head of the Russian delegation, intends to discuss the updated plan with Witkoff and Kushner. The head of the US State Department, Marco Rubio, said that he might join these negotiations. Donald Trump also said that he is heading to Florida, where he has “many meetings planned” over the weekend.
A Russian source told Reuters that any meeting between Dmitriev and Ukrainian negotiators in Miami was ruled out.
According to Rubio, progress has been made in negotiations to end the Russian-Ukrainian war, but they are still far from completion. At the same time, he expressed hope that the parties will be able to reach a compromise in the near future, before the end of 2025. “We cannot force Ukraine to make a deal. We can't force Russia to make a deal. They themselves must want to make a deal,” said the US Secretary of State.
Initially, Trump’s “peace plan,” developed with the participation of Dmitriev, consisted of 28 points. During negotiations with Washington, Kyiv managed to reduce the document to 20 points, removing “overtly anti-Ukrainian” proposals from it.
However, as The Wall Street Journal writes , there is still a long way to go before concluding an agreement, since the parties disagree on fundamental points. In particular, these are issues of territory, the size of the Ukrainian army, Kyiv’s desire to join NATO, the status of the Russian language in Ukraine and control over the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.
Updated . Vladimir Zelensky said that the Donald Trump administration proposed holding a trilateral meeting of the United States, Russia and Ukraine at the level of security advisers. According to the President of Ukraine, he is not sure that this meeting will bring anything new, but it is still worth holding, since the result of similar negotiations in Turkey was the return of captured military personnel and civilians.
War in photographs. Zaporozhye
On December 19, the Russian army launched an air strike on Zaporozhye. According to the National Police of Ukraine, the Russian military dropped three guided bombs on residential buildings in the private sector. As a result of the attack, infrastructure, multi-storey buildings, private households and vehicles were damaged. Six civilians were wounded - five women and a man.
War through the eyes of Meduza readers
How we choose letters
Meduza's readers live in different countries and have different attitudes towards the war. We publish your letters to see this event through your eyes. Our editors try to present all points of view, even if they do not coincide with the editorial position. However, in accordance with the Meduza code, we do not publish messages that contain “hate speech,” justify the murder of civilians, or express direct support for an aggressive war.
Evgeniy (Kharkov) . When I read calls for war to the bitter end, there is no limit to my indignation. But let's put emotions aside. What we have in Ukraine, the bare facts: Europe is freezing aid, most countries have refused to participate in a reparation loan at the expense of Russian assets, the purchase and supply of weapons is also being curtailed. The US is directly calling for concessions. The situation at the front is only getting worse, mass desertion is increasing , mobilization is becoming tougher, but its effectiveness is becoming less and less. I estimate the likelihood that the Western allies will come to their senses and open a second front as zero. The bottom line is that we have two options: bad now - and very bad later.
The main strategic goal of modern Ukraine—joining NATO—is simply unattainable. A key member and organizer of NATO blocked this opportunity. As the ancient Chinese proverb says: “Strategy without tactics is the slowest path to victory. Tactics without strategy is just vanity before defeat.”
The whole point of the war, starting in 2023, as I understand it for Ukraine, was to wait until the acceptable conditions of “honorable surrender” were met - and we got them. What follows causes complete misunderstanding.
I know history quite well, any analogy is false, but still they suggest themselves. Finland surrendered twice - in 1940 and 1944. And [the then commander-in-chief] Mannerheim is considered a great figure. By the way, not so long ago it was accepted into NATO. But there is also the opposite example: Kerensky and the Provisional Government. They also had only one song - “war to victory”, and the Entente was their allies, but it ended badly.
I have friends who fought, many have already been killed, some are still fighting and want only one thing - for this to end quickly. But I know even more of those who bought medical documents for money and fled to Europe; this is a super-massive phenomenon. I myself am unfit for health, but to confirm my status, I need ten thousand dollars, and illnesses do not bother anyone […].