Freezing the current border line between Ukraine and Russia, a first step to start negotiations and put an end to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev. A “compromise” that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky would be willing to accept in order to reach a peace agreement with Putin.
Zelensky and the front to “freeze”
Zelensky spoke about it in an interview with ‘Fox and Friends’, answering a direct question from the journalist: “Would you accept a peace agreement that freezes everything as it is now? Where you would keep 75% or more of your country? Regardless of how it started. Would you accept the current situation?”
The Ukrainian president replied without hesitation: “Right now we have to freeze the front and I believe that this is the concrete way to put an end to the war. Call it a ceasefire or stopping the killings, as President Trump said, we’re talking about freezing and stopping.” “Then, of course – added Zelensky – we will go to the president and the Europeans and ask them for security guarantees”.
The meeting between Putin and Witkoff
Today, Wednesday 21 October, the meeting also took place in St. Petersburg between the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the US envoy Steve Witkoff. As reported by Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, to the Tass news agency, the two had a conversation lasting about three hours and discussed various topics, including the peace process in Ukraine.
There was also talk of a possible meeting between Putin and Donald Trump in China, the situation in the Gulf and the diesel agreement between Moscow and Washington. During the conversation, the Russian president’s decision to release the US citizen, Stephen Hubbard, was also mentioned. Putin’s advisor, Yuri Ushakov, and the Kremlin’s special representative for foreign investments, Kirill Dmitriev, took part in the negotiations on the Russian side. According to Peskov, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner also participated remotely in the meeting.
Ushavok: “We are moving towards the end of the conflict”
Signs of détente also came from President Vladimir Putin’s advisor, Yuri Ushakov, who, speaking to journalists, responded to a question about the prospects of the war in Ukraine coming to an end: “I don’t know how close we are, but we are moving in that direction.”
“Vladimir Putin – he added – informed US envoy Steve Witkoff that in principle we are ready to resume trilateral talks around November 10 with focus on the main topic”. Furthermore, according to Ushakov, a possible first meeting between the leaders of China, Russia and the United States is being prepared, with the aim of including the summit in the program of the November APEC summit in Shenzhen.