Ukraine and Russia may now be “closer than ever” to a peace agreement during the entire time of full-scale war, US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said during a speech at a forum in Doha.
The process is being worked on several fronts, he said, and the United States has joined the effort.
The diplomat emphasised that US President Donald Trump assesses the current state of the negotiation process as “difficult”, because Kiev and Moscow, according to him, are literally “turning their noses up” and refusing to compromise.
“You shouldn’t go into a butcher’s shop where they make sausage and complain that you don’t like it… As far as I’m concerned, we’re all on the same page. With Secretary Rubio involved in the process, I’m pretty confident that all perspectives will be considered, but at the same time we need to find out if an agreement can be reached at all,” he said.
Whitaker confirmed that everything that was laid out in the so-called 28-point “U.S. peace plan” has now been divided into four separate tracks. And NATO, the European Union-are working separately from the peace process on the war in Ukraine and from the negotiations directly between the US and Ukraine.
According to Whitaker, all tracks are moving in parallel and are being worked through “in real time.”
Late in the evening of 2 December, U.S. Representatives Steve Whitkoff and Jared Kushner concluded talks in Moscow with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the parameters of a likely peace agreement in the Russia-Ukraine war. After that conversation, Putin aide Yuri Ushakov revealed that “no compromise option (for a peace settlement) has been found so far, but some American developments look more or less acceptable.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin later confirmed that during a meeting with Witkoff and Kushner on 2 December, Russian representatives disagreed with part of the points in the U.S. plan to end Russia’s war against Ukraine. Putin said that during the meeting they had to “go over every point” of the peace initiative. Earlier, Putin’s aide Yuriy Ushakov said that the points were not discussed in detail, but rather a general concept was discussed.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibyga pointed to the “positive significance for the peace process” of the talks in Moscow. According to him, US representatives invited the Ukrainian delegation “to continue talks in America in the near future”.