US Special Envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Wittkoff will meet the Russian president in Moscow on Thursday Vladimir Putin. From Moscow, the two will head to Dublin, where the situation in Ukraine will be discussed on Thursday and Friday.
In addition to the European countries and Canada, there is also a president in Dublin Volodymyr Zelenskyi.
On Thursday, Kushner and Witkoff will visit Moscow to “ask” Putin that Europe should also participate in the peace negotiations.
From Europe’s point of view, the most important thing is that a new security architecture driven by Russia is not built in Europe as part of the peace negotiations.
According to Ukrainian negotiation sources, Russia still demanded in the Abu Dhabi negotiations, which ended on Wednesday, that NATO must reduce its military presence in the 16 eastern NATO countries that have joined the alliance since 1997. This would also apply to Finland.
In addition, the Kremlin demands a halt to NATO expansion and a curtailment of arms cooperation with Ukraine and other former Soviet republics.
According to information reported by Kauppalehti on Wednesday, Russia’s demands were not agreed to in Abu Dhabi, and no changes to the current security architecture are coming to Europe.
The prime minister who arrived in Dublin on Thursday Petteri Orpo (kok) confirmed Kauppalehti’s information.
“No. There is no way we can discuss changes in European architecture here. What we have said is that we can build on existing structures, on top of the OSCE and the Paris Agreement, but no new security arrangements for Europe, except strong security guarantees for Ukraine,” Orpo said.
Kauppalehti also asked Orpo whether the Americans have a common view that the security architecture of Europe will not be changed and that NATO forces will not be reduced from Eastern Europe based on Russia’s demands.
“When the negotiations started in Abu Dhabi, the United States, Europe and the Ukrainians made a clear statement there that these security structures will not be interfered with, and I think that is such an important boundary line that we now have to trust it.”
“That’s why the Europeans must be present (at the negotiations) so that we ensure our own role and no one else can take our role,” Orpo said.
So far, Putin has not wanted Europeans at the negotiating table. Kauppalehti asked Orpo what is behind this.
“It is certainly not in Putin’s interest that the Europeans are there, because we have our own strong will, it would make it more difficult for him, but yes, we have to stick to this.”
European negotiator
According to Orpo, Europe needs to “little by little” get a clear vision of who or who represent Europe.
Orpo himself would like more negotiators.
“It’s good that E3 (France, Germany, Britain) has taken a stronger role.”
According to Orpo, Finland has also played a good role in supporting Ukraine.
“We are a kind of back office”, Orpo described.
“Of course we have special relations and our president is very good at negotiations”, he praised the president of the republic Alexander Stubbia.
According to Orpo, there will be discussions on Thursday and Friday in Dublin about how Europe organizes its negotiating team and what is Europe’s position in the negotiations.
Orpo is hopeful that solutions can now be found in the peace negotiations, especially because the United States has tightened its goals to achieve a solution.