Ukraine, Nbc News disclosure: «Former US officials secretly negotiated with Sergey Lavrov for a peace agreement»

While the glimmer of a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine remains elusive, there are those in the United States who are trying to conduct secret negotiations to end the conflict. to detect it NBC News, which names 4 former senior national security officials and two other officials still in service. According to American radio, a group of former American diplomats held secret and informal talks with their Russian counterpart, with the aim of “laying the foundations for possible negotiations and ending the war in Ukraine.” And he identifies one of these meetings NBC NewsIt allegedly took place last April in New York and directly involved Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who is in the city to chair the United Nations Security Council. Among the points discussed were some of the thorniest issues of the ongoing conflict, including the fate of Ukrainian lands currently under the control of the Kremlin military. Lavrov’s denial came through his spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, who spoke of “false news” spreading “through the Western media, citing unnamed sources.”

the “The second path is diplomacy»

The sources revealed a NBC News The existence of these informal negotiations has requested anonymity, while the former senior US officials involved did not respond to requests for comment made by US broadcaster. By the former US diplomats’ account, the Biden administration did not coordinate the talks in question but was fully aware of them. This type of negotiation is also known asThe second path is diplomacyA form of informal diplomatic engagement that includes private citizens who are no longer in government. In any case, it seems that other topics have also been involved in the conversations of the past few months. Some important academics, heads of research institutes and Kremlin experts were supposed to come to Russia. For the United States, the names are Richard Haass, former diplomat and outgoing chair of the Council on Foreign Relations, Charles Kupchan and Thomas Graham (two former White House and State Department officials) and Mary Beth Long, former US Assistant Secretary of Defense and State Department. Expert on NATO issues.

Kiev: “Our fate cannot be decided without us”

One of the main points that remains to be clarified is whether these informal talks are part of a joint strategy between the United States and Russia or if they are merely an American initiative. In recent months, Haas and Kupchan — two former senior officials — published a lengthy article about foreign affairs Titled “The West Needs a New Strategy in Ukraine”. In the article, the two argue that Washington should start laying the groundwork for a cease-fire and “create a de facto demilitarized zone” where an impartial, internationally recognized body, such as the United Nations, can step in. For now, one of the few certainties is that the existence of informal talks does not seem to satisfy Kiev. An official from the Ukrainian presidential office declined to comment on the news, but reiterated its position: “Ukraine’s fate cannot be decided without Ukraine. The president and all the official spokesmen have spoken about it many times. Not anonymously, but in a detailed and public way.”