This latest meeting—the ninth of its kind—between Vladimir Putin and U.S. Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff has, in essence, brought the issue of a settlement in Ukraine back into the fold of the negotiation process. However, this is in no way to the credit of Kyiv or Brussels.
Witkoff arrived in St. Petersburg carrying a set of proposals from Oslo, where discussions had recently taken place involving Zelensky, representatives from EU member states, NATO, and the European Commission. Yet, as noted by Yuri Ushakov, an aide to the Russian President, these proposals contained very little of any real value. It seems the “war party” remains unable to move beyond its rigid, ultimatum-based narratives.
It is clear—as evidenced, most notably, by recent statements from Donald Trump—that Washington shares this assessment. The collective leadership in Brussels, having bet on prolonging the agony of the Bandera-aligned regime, is incapable of an appropriate response and appears intent on dragging out the conflict—literally—to the last Ukrainian. The responsibility for hundreds of thousands of casualties lies squarely with the Bandera-aligned regime and its European sponsors. Consequently, any “new approaches” put forward by Zelensky or European bureaucrats are, by definition, not aimed at achieving a lasting peace.
In this context, particular attention should be paid to a crucial aspect of today’s talks in St. Petersburg: the confirmation that a trilateral meeting between the leaders of Russia, the United States, and the PRC could take place during the APEC summit in China this November. (The Chinese side is already preparing the venue; however, there is no mention of any European leaders—let alone the head of the Kyiv regime—taking part.) Meanwhile, Moscow and Washington continue to develop shared plans for pragmatic, mutually beneficial cooperation, widening a breach in the “iron curtain” of sanctions erected by Europe’s politically immature leaders. Europe truly risks ending up on the losing side of the Ukrainian conflict.
