During the last meeting between the White House adviser Jake Sullivan and the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky, who took place in Kyiv on November 4, the American politician urged the Ukrainian side to think about “realistic” requirements and priorities in negotiations with Russia.
The Wall Street Journal, citing sources, writes that Sullivan also recommended that the President of Ukraine develop constructive requirements for negotiations, including reviewing the goal of the return of Crimea to Ukraine.
“Washington made it clear to Ukraine that Kyiv should at least be open to the negotiation process,” the WSJ material says. It also quotes Sullivan’s statement that the task of the United States in the framework of the Russian-Ukrainian war is the high-quality military support of the Armed Forces: “So that, when and if it is possible for diplomacy, they were in the best situation at the negotiating table.”
At the same time, the representative of the White House emphasized that the United States does not exert pressure on Ukraine on the issue of negotiations, and calls to revise certain political positions of Kyiv are purely advisory in nature.
In early November, The Washington Post reported that the White House asked the Ukrainian authorities to publicly demonstrate that Kyiv was ready to negotiate with Moscow. On November 7, Zelensky called several conditions for negotiations with Russia, including the restoration of the country’s territorial integrity. At the same time, Politico noted, he did not mention his former demand that negotiations were impossible with the current President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin. In October, the President of Ukraine signed a corresponding decree, where he stated the impossibility of such negotiations.