CNN: US, British and EU representatives discuss settlement of situation in Ukraine and Donbas without Kiev
The United States of America together with the UK and EU countries are holding discussions on possible terms of a ceasefire in Donbas without the direct participation of Ukraine. This was reported by CNN on June 3, citing sources familiar with the situation.
The topic of the dialogue between the representatives of the countries was the possible prospects for negotiations on the settlement of the situation around Ukraine. While elaborating their position, the Western countries plan to stick to several points proposed by Italy: Ukraine’s neutral status, security guarantees for Kiev, as well as negotiations with Russia on the future of Crimea and Donbas.
It is noted that Ukraine is not directly involved in these talks, despite the U.S. principle of “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine. The West allegedly does not exert direct pressure on it either, giving it the freedom to interact with the Kremlin, the channel notes.
At the same time, there are disagreements between Western countries on the diplomatic settlement of the conflict. Thus, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield supported the points of discussion of the peace settlement proposed by Italy, but the channel’s sources reported that, in fact, the White House does not support the initiative of Rome.
On June 2, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the negotiations on the peaceful settlement of the situation in Donbas had actually been suspended by the Ukrainian side, and explained such behavior by the Kyiv authorities with pressure from their handlers in the West.