The stage is set for a meeting between Russia and Ukraine on Monday near the Pripyat River on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border.
Is this a diplomatic success or a political side while Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine?
Let’s be clear what this is not: The meeting is not a summit between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Instead, it is a meeting between delegations from both sides. Zelensky’s office said Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko called the Ukrainian president on Sunday and offered security guarantees, adding that Lukashenko “has taken the responsibility of ensuring that all aircraft, helicopters and missiles stationed in Belarusian territory are available to the Ukrainian delegation.” Will stay on the ground during the meeting. Return.”
But can Ukraine accept any guarantee from Lukashenko? He is the same leader whose authorities last year forced a Ryanair flight into Belarusian airspace and arrested a young Belarusian dissident, accusing it of a “safety warning” that sparked international outrage.
Monday’s planned meeting follows a flurry of statements from the Kremlin, which claimed that the Ukrainian side first opposed Russia’s offer to meet in Belarus with an offer to meet in Warsaw and then dropped contact. Zelensky’s office denied these claims, citing that he declined to negotiate.
What the meeting can produce: Zelensky himself set low hopes for the meeting on Sunday, and it is tempting to guess that the meeting at the border will be very short. But it does provide Putin at least some potential place to pull out of the war in Ukraine if his troops face a battlefield setback against the Ukrainian military.
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