The new President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, should not meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin just yet.
This was stated in an interview with the Kyiv magazine “Novoye Vremya” by the former US Ambassador to Ukraine, and now a researcher at Stanford University, Steven Pifer, answering the question of whether the presidents of Russia and Ukraine should meet one-on-one.
According to him, “it’s better to make do with the Normandy format for now” and not abandon the Minsk agreements, on which “the EU sanctions against Russia are based.”
“If Putin realizes that Russia needs a new policy towards Donbass, then maybe it’s worth meeting for direct negotiations. In the end, the fate of Donbass primarily depends on Putin,” the ex-ambassador said.
He also does not recommend using the meeting of the presidents of the Russian Federation and the United States in Helsinki as an example for Ukraine, since “Trump was unprepared for the summit, while Putin prepared very well.”
“If the Ukrainian president has a one-on-one meeting with Putin, then one must be very carefully prepared for this meeting. Putin is an expert in diplomatic subtleties and many nuances of international politics. First you do your homework - and only then meet with the Russian leader. I repeat: until Putin changes his policy towards Donbass, it is not worth meeting with him,” Pifer concluded.