Zelensky reinforces security requirement and rejects Donbass negotiation

O Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky today expressed skepticism about the talks of Russian President Vladimir Putin with the US envoys and insisted on obtaining security guarantees and sovereignty over the Donbass region.

In statements in Dublin with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin, Zelensky said that the United States will have to return with “concrete proposals” after its contacts with the Kremlin on Thursday, although he doubts that Putin is willing to facilitate any progress.

Zelensky removed the possibility of negotiating the military withdrawal of the Donbass, region in eastern Ukraine partially occupied by Russia, and noted that the outcome of the talks will largely depend on the will of the United States to press Putin.

“We need positive signals from the United States,” noted the Ukrainian leader, reiterating his demand for security guarantees that prevent a new Russian aggression, a subject that he also said would await a response from both Moscow and Washington.

Despite the skepticism about the contacts of the US envoys with the leader of the Kremlin, the President of Ukraine considered it positive that the negotiations are not stopped and hopes that “there will be results this year and next.”.

At the end of two days of meetings in Abu Dhabi between Russian, Ukrainian and White House envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, Zelensky also insisted on the Irish capital that Europe should participate “in equal circumstances” in peace talks.

“ This war is happening in Ukraine, and ending it without Europe’s participation would be unfair and impossible,” said the Ukrainian President, who thanked Ireland for the aid packages provided by Dublin and the willingness to continue supporting Kyiv.

The Irish Prime Minister also commented that “there should be European voices at the negotiating table” and indicated that talks in Abu Dhabi would also be discussed during the European Political Community meeting scheduled for Thursday in Dublin.

Micheál Martin argued that the future of Ukraine is “within the European Union” and indicated that Ireland will provide all logistical support for the meeting that Zelensky will hold on Thursday with Witkoff and Kushner, who will proceed to Dublin after the meeting with Putin.

After two days of meetings in Abu Dhabi, “a large number of prisoners” was announced, as Russian negotiators Vladimir Medinsky called it, and described by Jared Kushner as the “greatest humanitarian release of prisoners”, but whose details remained undisclosed.

Volodymyr Zelensky said in Dublin that he was awaiting further details from the American team, but said he was counting on Moscow agreeing to the humanitarian release of up to 1,200 prisoners.

The absence of Europeans from U.S.-mediated negotiations was the subject of a joking comment by the Russian chief of diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, who said they were “there” in a Abu Dhabi hotel.

The head of the Russian delegation today said “not understanding very well” the role of Europeans, saying that Moscow received no concrete proposal, “so it is rather complicated to know what to discuss”.

Russia has made the negotiations on the war that started against Ukraine almost five years ago dependent on the definition of a new security architecture in Europe, an idea that has been receiving the support of American President Donald Trump.

The head of the Ukrainian delegation in Abu Dhabi, Rustem Umerov, said for his part that there are still “significant differences” in the positions of Kyiv and Moscow.

Negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow were resumed after more than eight months of paralysis, due to the transfer of Washington's focus to the war unleashed together with Israel on 28 February against Iran.

In the previous rounds, Russia and Ukraine have not made progress on the fundamental issues mainly related to the future of the regions occupied by the Moscow forces and the security guarantees to Kyiv.