Donald Trump’s men arrive in Europe and talks to stop the war between Ukraine and Russia get underway. The next few days are destined to affect the framework of the conflict, which has been going on for 3 years now. From February 14 to 16, the Security Conference takes place in Munich. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will land in Bavaria, who will be able to meet US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio before welcoming Trump’s special envoy, Keith Kellogg, to Kiev, expected on February 20.
The next few hours, therefore, characterized by the landing of a star-studded delegation in Europe. The trip, as the Telegraph highlights, will be an opportunity for direct contacts with Western allies: the objective, with Kellogg in the front row, will be to identify a basic format for the peace agreement with the definition of the role of European countries in the process. Kellogg, in particular, is expected to hold talks with prime ministers and presidents of NATO countries to ensure they are not excluded from negotiations in which Trump is expected to play a leading role.
Emissaries of the American president will be in Kiev even before the German appointment. “This week”, before the Munich Security Conference, “people from President Trump’s team, serious people”, will arrive in Ukraine, Zelensky says, quoted by the Unian news agency. Zelensky explains that Ukrainian and US officials are working to arrange a meeting with the White House chief. “Our teams are also working on dialogue and a meeting between me and President Trump – he says – It seems to me that there is no secret about this. The question is when it will happen”.
“We are preparing for negotiations with our partners, European and US, from mid-week. This includes the Ramstein group meeting, discussions in Kiev and then the Munich security conference”, Zelensky adds in a post. “It’s crucial to work all together to bring real peace and effective security guarantees, not only for Ukraine but for the whole world. All this is up for discussion now, from Ukrainians and our partners. Peace is always a collective effort,” he says.
Meanwhile, Moscow is watching. The Kremlin neither confirms nor denies Trump’s statements about contacts already made with Putin. In the last few hours, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has spoken, quoted by Tass. Russia, he says, does not expect its relations with Washington to improve much with Trump’s return to the White House. “We are not too optimistic about an improvement on this front, compared to others”, says the diplomat, proposing a detached position compared to the frenzy perceived on the Western chessboard. “In US domestic politics and the rigid realm of their foreign policy, Russia has been officially designated as a major adversary, as they officially call us,” Ryabkov says.
“This perception has long been bolstered by bipartisan consensus in the United States,” he adds. For the top Russian diplomat, US involvement in the Ukraine conflict is extensive. One of the most important issues is the “cutting-edge weapons supplied by Washington to the Kiev regime, including long-range missile systems”. So, the opening hint: if Trump is showing interest in resuming dialogue with Russia, Moscow is ready to do so.
“Despite the baseless pronouncements of Trump and his team, they are at least showing interest in resuming dialogue with Russia that has been cut off by the Democrats”.
“We are ready for dialogue and we have said so more than once. We are also ready to discuss the Ukrainian solution, but only on an equal and mutually acceptable basis,” he says, adding that “it will be necessary to recognize the realities on the ground and eradicate the causes” of the crisis that forced Russia to launch its special military operation in Ukraine.
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