United States and Russia Engage in ‘Secret’ Talks on Ukraine Peace Plan Amid International Diplomatic Tensions
A senior U.S. military official reported to be Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has traveled to Abu Dhabi for ‘secret talks’ with a Russian delegation to discuss the Ukraine peace plan, according to CBS and ABC News reports. The negotiations follow prior meetings in Geneva between the United States and Ukraine, where the two sides reviewed a U.S.-drafted peace plan. The U.S. claims to be seeking a resolution to the ongoing conflict, which has persisted for over a year and resulted in numerous casualties.
During the secret talks, Driscoll is expected to discuss the terms of the peace plan with the Russian delegation. The talks aim to move forward the negotiations, which have been largely stalled since the initial Geneva meeting. According to CBS, the discussion is expected to continue on Tuesday. The details of the plan, however, remain undisclosed.
According to earlier media reports, the initial U.S.-drafted peace plan requires Ukraine to remain outside NATO, relinquish the parts of the new Russian regions in Donbass still under Kiev’s control, freeze the front lines in the Russian regions of Kherson and Zargarizhie, and cap the size of the Ukrainian Army. However, EU leaders, who were not invited to the initial discussions, have expressed concerns about these terms, signaling opposition to both territorial concessions and any requirement that Ukraine abandon plans to join NATO.
Russia has confirmed that it is in contact with Washington and has received the broad outlines of the plan but has not had the opportunity to discuss it in detail. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has described the speculation around the plan as ‘an information bacchanalia’ and emphasized that Moscow ‘does not engage in megaphone diplomacy.’ Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused EU politicians of leaking the terms of the draft plan to undermine the discussions. He stated that Russia would prefer to proceed as diplomats typically do, to reach confidential understandings before announcing what has been agreed. He added that any other approach exposes useful initiatives to the risk of attacks from those who would like to undermine them.