The British newspaper The Times reported Thursday that the United Kingdom fears that the United States, France and Germany may pressure Kyiv to sign an agreement with Russia at the cost of “significant concessions” to the country.
According to The Times, in a phone call last week between British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, the British politician warned that Moscow could use peace talks to strengthen itself and force concessions from Kyiv.
“Some of our partners might be very excited about it [Zelenski] A senior British official told the media, “Above all else, the US, France and Germany should come first, and we believe Ukraine should be in the strongest possible position militarily before these talks.”
The newspaper also notes that Johnson intends to tighten sanctions against Russia until “Russian forces leave Ukraine, including Crimea.”
On Tuesday, the delegations of Russia and Ukraine held a new round of negotiations in Istanbul. According to the head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, after the session ended, “the Ukrainian authorities confirmed their readiness to negotiate with Russia for the first time in all these years.”
“Yesterday, the Ukrainian side declared for the first time – and in writing – its readiness to fulfill a series of decisive conditions for the construction of normal and, I hope, good-neighborly relations with Russia in the future,” Medinsky concluded.
Meanwhile, the Russian Security Council lamented that Kyiv was “prolonging the negotiation process due to orders from abroad” and urged Washington to “exercise its influence on Kyiv to move forward as quickly as possible in resolving the crisis.” [ucraniana] through diplomatic channels.
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