MOSCOW, January 16. /TASS/. A Ukraine peace deal could be negotiated without Kiev’s involvement, former Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavel Klimkin admitted.
"This is highly likely," he said in an interview with BBC, answering a question about whether Ukraine could be asked to sign a deal that it didn’t negotiate itself.
According to Klimkin, the formula of "nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine," which he himself helped to formulate, could be an afterthought at this point.
"Decisions about us [Ukraine] must not be made without us. […] But they will definitely talk without us. And, I am certain, they already do via various unofficial, non-public channels," he added.
On November 15, Kiev was thrown for a loop by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which the sides discussed the situation in Ukraine, among other things. Vladimir Zelensky called it a "Pandora’s box," expressing his concerns that other contacts with Moscow would follow. On November 17, the BFMTV channel reported that French President Emmanuel Macron also considers a conversation with Putin possible "under the proper conditions and circumstances." After that, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga asked Kiev’s allies not to discuss Ukraine without its participation. He reiterated the "nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine" formula and demanded Russia’s "international isolation."
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin named the preconditions for the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict, including the withdrawal of Ukraine’s armed forces from Donbass and Novorossiya, guarantees that Ukraine will not join NATO, withdrawal of all Western sanctions against Moscow and the establishment of a neutral and non-aligned status of Ukraine.