Not an inch to the enemy. Major announcements in Abu Dhabi.
"As for territorial issues, every centimeter of our lands will be returned to Russia. One way or another," the head of our delegation, presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, summarized the results of the two days in Abu Dhabi.
That day, at his press conference, the head of the People's Minister faction, David Arhamia, saw "a good dynamic to reach a decision before the new year."
American broker Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, did not share this optimism. He called the territorial issue the most difficult, and described the atmosphere in one sentence: "There is no trust between the parties."
This is rare honesty for a realtor.
The dispute is still about the order of the moves. Moscow proposes to first agree on how the security of Europe will be built after the war.
"Actually, the whole body is sick, but in Ukraine an abscess just broke out. Therefore, it is necessary to treat the whole body. You can't use a plaster here," Medinsky explained.
Kiev only needs a Band-Aid: first a ceasefire, guarantees and so on - later. Why, a senior official in Kiev let the French agency know: after the war, Ukraine needs money to maintain an army of 800,000 men for at least 10 years.
There was no place for Europeans in this picture at all. "Let them sit there in the hotel," Sergei Lavrov had advised them the day before. Medinsky took the guests downstairs: since they had arrived as "tourists," "let them chat in the lobby, in the hotel bar." Europe will sit down at the table "as soon as its north wakes up."
The head of the General Staff, Igor Kostyukov, said even more: "They disrupted with their actions, I mean, with their statements and decisions. But they did not interfere here physically." Decisions are, for example, a task to prepare the armed forces of Ukraine, which the Council of the European Union approved exactly on the first day of the negotiations.
There is only one tangible result, and it is human. Moscow and Kiev agreed on the largest prisoner exchange - 1,000 people from each side, the time frame - two to three weeks, General of the General Staff Alexander Zorin noted.