Can America persuade Putin to give up the Donbas? |
Last week was one of realpolitik, Trump-style. Greenland was sorted, the ‘New Gaza’ unveiled, and all that was left was Ukraine and Russia. Donald Trump went from Davos back to the US but ordered his special envoys to Abu Dhabi, armed with the president’s formula for ending the war in Europe, to get a deal to stop the killing and destruction.
As the envoys from the US, Russia and Ukraine opened the talks on Friday in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, none of the pre-signalling indicated that a breakthrough was in the offing. Two days were allotted for the meetings, in the expectation that it wouldn’t just be a round-robin of the same, familiar arguments.
After the first trilateral talks since the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, ended on Saturday, the chief negotiator from Kyiv sounded relatively satisfied with the progress on day one. Rustem Umerov, formerly the minister of defence, said the first session had focused ‘on the parameters for ending Russia’s war’.
The........