On Wednesday it was reported that the Kremlin will send an envoy to Washington to further peace negations in the Ukraine war. The move follows a back-and-forth between Washington and Kiev over the last few days which has been making slow progress, albeit progress nonetheless.
“Putin envoy Kirill Dmitriev was born in Kyiv, educated in the U.S., and reportedly has good relations with Washington officials,” the Independent said Wednesday.
The move by Moscow is notable as Russian President Vladimir Putin recently said he would not sign any deals with the “illegitimate” government of Kiev, instead seeking a U.N./U.S./E.U. led termporary government to take control of The Ukraine.
The Russian envoy trip, featuring Kirill Dmitriev who was born in Kiev, educated in the U.S. and reportedly shares positive relations with officials in Washington, will seek to further peace talks, however it is not clear if the official will push for this new, temporary, Ukrainian government overhaul or not.
On Sunday President Donald Trump said that Ukrainian Dictator Vladimir Zelensky tried backing out of the mineral deal again. Trump stated that Ukraine will not join NATO despite the Dictators aspirations to become part of the military bloc.
“I see he’s trying to back out of the rare earth deal. And if he does that, he’s got some problems. Big, big problems,” Trump said on Sunday. “We made a deal on rare earth and now he’s saying, ‘well, you know, I want to renegotiate the deal’…He wants to be a member of NATO. Well, he was never going to be a member of NATO. He understands that. So if he’s looking to renegotiate the deal, he’s got big problems.”
On Tuesday Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said that Kiev will work toward a ‘mutually acceptable‘ minerals deal. That same day it was reported that ‘determined talks‘ are now underway.
While speaking with reporters on Monday President Trump said that President Putin will follow through with a peace agreement with Ukraine.
“I think he will. I don’t want to go secondary tariffs on his oil, but I think it’s something I would do if I thought he wasn’t doing the job,” Trump said.
Interestingly, in December Putin said that he only had one requirement to signing a peace plan, that Kiev hold elections for their Dictator. Zelensky, however, has repeatedly refused to hold elections, causing Trump to call him a “Dictator without elections” in February.
To clarify, Zelensky’s presidency ended in May. The Dictator refused to step down due to war-time provisions in the Ukrainian Constitution. He reiterated his anti-election stance in November during a speech before the Ukrainian Parliament.
The Dictator continues to grasp to power even after an impending ceasefire was set to go into effect. On March 14 Zelensky’s advisor stated he will not step down or hold elections despite this halt to hostilities. Now on Monday, David Arakhamia, the head of Zelensky’s ruling Servant of the People faction in parliament dismissed reports that Ukraine’s Dictator will hold elections.
Despite this, on Tuesday Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that progress is being made in Moscow’s discussions with Washington.
Other forces are not so positive however, Germany just announced $12 billion in military aid to Ukraine which is to be paid out over the next four years. This comes on the heels of a massive military aid package by France.