The landslide victory by Donald J. Trump in the American Presidential Elections caused a large geopolitical impact all around the world, but perhaps in no other context than the war in Ukraine.
The fact that Trump called upon himself the responsibility of ending the conflict has generated a massive expectation about his moves on this issue.
Now it arises from official Russian sources that Moscow is open to negotiations on an end to the war if the initiative comes from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
This encouraging signal comes with a caveat – any talks need to be ‘based on the realities of Russian advances,’ according to the Russian ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva.
During the campaign, Trump harshly criticized the amount of Western aid to Kiev, and has promised to end the conflict at once.
His victory has Ukraine and other European nations worried about future of U.S. commitment to helping Ukraine.
Reuters reported:
“’Trump promised to settle the Ukrainian crisis overnight. OK, let him try. But we are realistic people of course we understand that this will never happen’, said Gennady Gatilov, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva.
‘But if he starts or suggests something to start the political process, it’s welcome’.
[Gatilov] added that any such negotiations needed to be based on what he called the ‘realities on the ground’, describing Ukraine as being on the back foot in the more-than-two-year conflict. Russian forces are advancing at the fastest pace in at least a year in Ukraine and now control about one-fifth of the country.”
In public, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insists that peace can only come when all the territory captured by Moscow – including Crimea – is returned. At this point in time, this is a delusional posture.
Zelensky’s “victory plan” still contains an invitation for Ukraine to join NATO, something Russia will never allow.
Zelensky told EU leaders in Budapest last week that it’s ‘unacceptable for Ukraine and suicidal for all Europe’ to make territorial concessions.
Ambassador Gatilov has indicated that Trump’s election opens a new window for dialogue with the United States.
But a broader reset of relations is, at this point, unlikely.
“’The U.S. political elite regardless of domestic political shifts, (Washington) consistently pursues a stance of containing Moscow and this orientation is deeply-rooted unfortunately and the change of administration does little to alter it’, he said. ‘The only shift (that) might be possible is dialogue between our countries, something that has been lacking during the last several years’, he added.”
Read more:
The post Russia Open to Ukraine Peace Talks as Long as Trump Starts Them, But Those Need To Be Based on the ‘Realities on the Ground’- AMBASSADOR appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.