Translated material
War
One thousand four hundred and eighty-first day. Peace process stalls and Trump loses interest in negotiations over war with Iran
Since February 24, 2022, Meduza has been broadcasting live about the Russian-Ukrainian war. We publish your letters every day because we are sure that we need to continue talking about the war. Share with us your thoughts about the war. What feelings are you experiencing? How does war affect your life and your attitude towards the world? If you have a story related to the war, tell it . The feedback form is at the end of this article. A review of the previous day can be read here .
World
The peace process is running out of steam and Trump is losing interest in peace talks due to the war in the Middle East.
The US-led peace process on Ukraine is stalled as Donald Trump loses interest in the negotiations and the war against Iran leads to easing pressure on Russia, the Financial Times writes , citing several European sources, including diplomats involved in the negotiations.
According to one senior European official, negotiations between Ukrainian and Russian delegations mediated by the United States are “really in a dangerous zone.” Another interlocutor notes that the Middle East has “seriously refocused political attention” and diverted it away from Ukraine. “This is a disaster for us and for Ukraine,” he says.
According to the FT, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz visited the White House three days after the start of the US war with Iran and brought maps and graphs to justify the need to increase pressure on Moscow. However, Trump was not inclined to discuss this topic in detail and remained convinced that Russia was strong and Ukraine was weak, the newspaper’s source said. There were also no signs of US readiness to increase pressure on Vladimir Putin.
Putin has so far largely refrained from criticizing Trump over the war in the Middle East - perhaps trying to prevent the US from siding even more decisively with Ukraine, FT interlocutors say. However, Moscow, for its part, does not show any readiness for a compromise and is beginning to feel irritated by the course of the process, the newspaper writes.
Attention. There is swearing in the text below.
In addition, the Kremlin also refuses the participation of European representatives in the negotiations. According to FT sources, in February, French presidential advisers Emmanuel Bonn and Bertrand Buchwalter arrived in Moscow to meet with Putin's assistant Yuri Ushakov, FT writes. They tried to persuade the Kremlin to agree that Europeans should have a seat at the negotiating table. Ushakov responded to this with a sharp refusal. According to a senior European diplomat the FT spoke to, "his response was 'not at all, fuck off'."
Meanwhile, the war in the Middle East, as diplomats note, plays into Russia’s hands: oil prices are rising, US sanctions are temporarily weakened, and the American ammunition Kyiv needs is quickly being used up.
Diplomats say EU countries have been told that US arms shipments - especially air defense and missile defense systems - will be delayed as Washington prioritizes clients in the Middle East. “This is definitely a problem because there is actually competition for the same resources,” EU diplomacy chief Kaja Kallas told the FT.
Vladimir Zelensky, in a conversation with reporters, acknowledged “the great risk that the war in the Middle East will affect air defense supplies to Ukraine.” According to him, Ukraine is considering European SAMP/T systems as an alternative. This year Kyiv will receive such a system from France; it will be tested against ballistics. In case of successful tests, Ukraine will be first in line for SAMP/T systems.
Ukraine
Zelensky commented on the crisis in the Verkhovna Rada: people’s deputies will have to “either serve in parliament or go to the front”
The crisis continues in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine: the adoption of laws is increasingly blocked due to political contradictions, and the parliament fails both technical solutions and key bills necessary, for example, for cooperation with the International Monetary Fund. This is because many deputies are now afraid to support any bills - after anti-corruption authorities in Ukraine suspected five parliamentarians of receiving money for voting.
On March 13, the first deputy head of the faction of the presidential party “Servant of the People,” Andrei Motovilovets, said in an interview with Forbes that 40 people’s deputies are ready to resign their mandates. He noted that the faction “lost its core,” and voting for this or that law “became difficult after suspicions” from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP).
On March 14, Vladimir Zelensky held a closed meeting with Ukrainian journalists, at which he stated, among other things, that people’s deputies will have to “either serve in parliament or go to the front.”
“People’s deputies will either have to serve in parliament in accordance with Ukrainian legislation, or I am ready to negotiate with representatives of parliament a law on changes in mobilization so that deputies can go to the front. If you do not serve the state in parliament, serve the state at the front. This is my approach,” Zelensky said .
He added that a third option is possible - to change the legislation in some way and hold elections. “But I believe that elections are impossible during a war, and there are also corresponding legal difficulties. As for how parliament works now: there may be many different reasons, many personal assessments. But the situation needs to be corrected,” Zelensky said.
War in photographs. Kharkov, Kherson, Chernigov, Sumy
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.
Agata (Latin America). Honestly, I'm torn between tired and angry.
I’m tired of the fact that in four years we haven’t gotten any closer to peace. I’m tired of constantly being thrown from shame and horror to fatigue and despair. That politicians endlessly express concern, impose sanctions that most often hit the wrong people, and generally do some crazy things all over the world.
I am angry with my girlfriends and friends in Russia, who during all these years of war asked at most three times how my grandmother was doing in Ukraine, although they know perfectly well where she lives. That they still live as if nothing is happening to anyone anywhere. And I understand that not everyone wants and can leave, that you can’t put life on pause and it’s impossible and unnecessary to go around in mourning forever, but not being interested in anything other than your life, because “it doesn’t concern us” is beyond my understanding.
Sometimes I want to tell them that this at least concerns me, even if they don’t care about everyone else, and I’m their friend. This is my grandmother, my loved one, my childhood in Ukraine, my happiest memories. So where is their empathy? But I still don’t want to lose this connection and spoil the relationship and therefore I remain silent.
I'm angry at my job. I worked in charity centers for 11 years and wrote about rights, orphanages, people with disabilities and so on. I worked for pennies, juggling a bunch of projects at once, because I believed that it was all not in vain, that since I could, I should do at least something to make life in our country at least a little better. And where is it all? And why was all this?
I’m angry with myself now for complaining to you, although compared to the same grandmother, my problems are not worth a damn. And I'm angry that I can't do anything for her.
I’m angry that at the age of 33 I don’t know what to do with my life now, and I’m very tired of it.