Medvedev spells out conditions for possible talks with Trump administration on Ukraine

Russia may enter discussions with the administration of the incoming U.S. president regarding the situation in Ukraine should Moscow’s interest be taken into consideration. 

The Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev gave this statement in a recent interview, Caliber.Az reports referring to Russian media outlets.

According to the former Russian president, it is necessary, however, to take several factors into account, namely the existing situation on the ground, changes made to the Russian constitution, the terms defined by President Vladimir Putin at the start of the conflict, as well as the possibility of Ukraine’s NATO membership.

"If answers to all these questions are provided, then, of course, negotiations in the future with active participation of the U.S. administration are maybe possible. But first we need to get there," he clarified.

Earlier, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov stated that Ukraine's accession to NATO is categorically unacceptable for Russia, reiterating that Moscow cannot allow the further approach of the hostile NATO bloc to its borders. This was also stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin multiple times before the outbreak of hostilities in the region, as well as since the beginning of the “special military operation”, as it is defined as by Moscow, in February 2022. 

As Caliber.Az recalls, the Russian government adopted amendments to it’s constitution on September 30, 2022 which declared that four Ukrainian regions that had been under the control of the Russian army at that point, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson were to be incorporated into the Russian Federation. 

Negotiations on a possible peace treaty between the two conflicting parties as well as other involved countries have stalled in recent months. Russia’s Vladimir Putin had stated during his interview to U.S. journalist Tucker Carlson ahead of the two-year anniversary of the conflict, one the rare contacts he granted to Western media in recent years, that he had not spoken to U.S. President Joe Biden ever since the beginning of the military conflict in Ukraine.

By Nazrin Sadigova