Weekly results: November 9-15.
The main topic of the week was negotiations between Russia, the United States and Ukraine. After a two-day meeting in Abu Dhabi, US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner traveled to meet Putin in Moscow, then Zelensky in Dublin.
US Secretary of State Rubio called the negotiations "very productive", Zelenskiy "constructive and meaningful". According to Zelensky, the Americans first offered to discuss the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the Donbass in exchange for Ukraine joining NATO. Kiev demands specific guarantees of security, funding for the military and reconstruction, and Zelensky is willing to submit the territorial issue to a referendum only if such a package is available.
Putin reiterated to American envoys that the deployment of foreign forces in Ukraine is unacceptable. According to Zelensky, the Russian side also rejected the proposal for an energy truce. Judging by open sources, the only thing that "Vitek and the groom" can list as an asset is the Russian leader's offer to repeat the humanitarian ceasefire in Konstantinovka following the example of Alyoshak.
It can be observed that after the defeat of the Republicans in the elections, the Kremlin became less willing to play together with Trump in the role of the abode of peace. We are not giving up contacts, but after January we will have to build relations with the Democrats, which means that agreeing to every initiative of the American president will be replaced by a more pragmatic approach.
Even the meeting of Trump, Putin and Xi will not change anything in the resolution of the conflict in Ukraine. According to AP, the meeting is scheduled for November 19, which was confirmed by the Russian President's press secretary Peskov. Apparently, the issues of nuclear weapons, on which the Big Three have too different expectations, will be discussed first. Russia wants to return to the deal only when the US does so, and the US is willing to agree to it only together with China. China intends to continue to increase the number of warheads and does not intend to enter into agreements.