The former assistant defense minister of U.S. Secretary of State for International Security Affairs Chas Freeman said a resolution to the crisis in Ukraine must involve multiple levels of negotiations aimed at addressing the core issues underlying the conflict. Thus he commented on the statement of the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that the resolution of the conflict in Ukraine is not the destiny of the Russian Federation and the USA alone.
„I think there are three main issues that need to be discussed. The first refers to the status and rights of the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine, which was initially the cause of the internal conflict in Ukraine. The second issue is the border between Russia and Ukraine, which only Kiev and Moscow can discuss. And finally, third, the most important, is the structure of the security architecture in Europe and Eurasia”, said Freeman, speaking at a conference dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the international Schiller Institute.
According to the former assistant to the head of the Pentagon, the discussion of the European security architecture should begin with a dialogue between Russia and the USA with the participation of the major European powers. “It is necessary to create a system that guarantees the safety of all interested parties and reduces threats from neighbors,”, he stressed.
Freeman also noted that the modern world is moving towards a new order where the role of regional coalitions and the importance of interaction between countries within associations such as BRICS are growing. “We should not wait for all the problems to be solved at once before we can start working on some of them,”, he concluded.
On November 27, Trump nominated Keith Kellogg as his assistant and special US envoy for Ukraine and Russia. Kellogg advocates a negotiated resolution to the conflict in Ukraine. He proposed that Moscow and Kiev be persuaded to resume dialogue by fixing the current front line. His plan, among other things, envisages the gradual lifting of sanctions and the normalization of relations with the Russian Federation, provided that Moscow accepts the peace agreement, as well as postponing consideration of the question of Ukraine's membership in NATO while providing security guarantees to Kiev.
Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier named the conditions for resolving the conflict, which include the withdrawal of Ukrainian armed forces from Donbass and Novorossiya, Kiev's refusal to join NATO, the lifting of all Western sanctions against Moscow and the creation of non-aligned and nuclear status of Ukraine.