Delicate Round of Negotiations With Russia on Ukraine

They are talking, but drones and missiles still fly.

Nobody said it would be easy, as negotiations on a ceasefire in Ukraine have resumed between the United States and Russia in Saudi Arabia. The atmospherics surrounding the talks on Sunday and Monday (March 23-24) ebbed and flowed, with reports of progress followed by revelations of speedbumps.

But there is a path, bumpy as it may be. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky portrayed the discussions in Riyadh on Sunday as the teams “working in a fully constructive manner, and the discussion is quite useful,” according to Fox News.

Sovereignty Issues for Ukraine

Building on what was described as a very productive communication earlier between the leaders of the United States and Russia, the negotiators took their cue. “Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to an incremental and temporary ceasefire during a marathon phone call with President Donald Trump, which included the possibility of a peace deal in the overseas conflict,” the Daily Caller observed. The “incremental and temporary” ceasefire and sovereignty issues for Ukraine are on the agenda of the current technical talks. The principal topic will be the implementation of a truce in the Black Sea, which would allow more commercial transportation through the waterway without fears of being targeted as  combatant vessels

Leading the negotiations for the United States were “Andrew Peek, a senior director at the White House National Security Council, and Michael Anton, a senior State Department official. Russia was represented by Grigory Karasin, a former diplomat who is now chair of the Russian upper house’s Foreign Affairs Committee,” according to a Reuters report. A follow-on observation noted:

“Karasin was cited by Interfax news agency as saying during a break after nearly three hours of talks that consultations were progressing ‘creatively’ and that the two sides had discussed issues regarded as ‘irritants’ in their bilateral ties.”

To underscore just how difficult getting to an agreement consider that, while negotiations are proceeding, Russia and Ukraine continue to exchange missile and drone attacks. The Associated Press wrote, “The Russian Defense Ministry said Monday a Ukrainian drone attacked an oil pumping station in southern Russia that serves a pipeline carrying Kazakhstan’s Caspian Sea oil to the Russian port of Novorossiisk for export.”

Ukraine, for its part, poked back at Russia. “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of prolonging the war on Sunday, as representatives from Kyiv and Washington gathered in Saudi Arabia for the latest round of negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine,” according to a South China Morning Post account.

So, as missiles and drones fly, challenging issues remain. Even the juxtaposition of words becomes important. “While the White House said, ‘energy and infrastructure’ would be covered, the Kremlin declared that the agreement referred more narrowly to ‘energy infrastructure,’” the AP parsed in its coverage.

And other sticking points continue to plague the peace process. Russia requires a buffer zone of aligned countries, like the Cold War Warsaw Pact, but that notion may be more aspirational than realistic. Continuing negotiations are encouraging, but a complete pause in the fighting and an ultimate peace agreement are, at the moment, just hopes

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