RUSSIA SAYS AMERICA MUST “BRING EUROPE TO ITS SENSES”
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov says Vladimir Putin will present Russia’s position to US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Moscow. After that, he claims, Washington’s task will be to “bring its allies in Europe to their senses.”
That sentence exposes Moscow’s approach to these negotiations. Russia is not speaking about persuading Europe through reasonable proposals or ending its invasion—it expects Washington to pressure European governments into accepting the Kremlin’s demands.
Europe is not an unruly subordinate for the United States to discipline. European countries border Russia, support Ukraine, shelter millions of Ukrainians and would live with the security consequences of any agreement long after the American delegation returned home.
Moscow continues to treat Ukraine’s sovereignty and Europe’s security as matters to be negotiated between Russia and the United States. That is precisely why Ukraine and Europe must remain at the table.
If Putin arrives with another list of territorial demands, restrictions on Ukraine’s defenses and conditions imposed upon NATO, it will not be a peace proposal. It will be another attempt to extract through American pressure what Russia has failed to achieve on the battlefield.