Moscow is stalling for time, Donbass is bargaining: what the night negotiations are hiding and what it threatens for Ukraine

Last night in Moscow, emissaries of the US President — Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner — were working. Their visit to the Kremlin was accompanied by closed negotiations with Vladimir Putin, after which the Russian side publicly stated its position: without resolving the “territorial issue,” there are no prospects for long-term settlement, according to Moscow. The conclusion was formulated very clearly — the war against Ukraine will continue.

This formula is long familiar to Kyiv and its partners. Territories in exchange for a pause. A pause in exchange for new demands.

Today in Abu Dhabi, trilateral negotiations of delegations from Ukraine, USA, and Russia are starting. According to Axios, the central theme will be control over territories in eastern Ukraine. This line was also confirmed by President Volodymyr Zelensky, emphasizing that the key focus of the negotiations is the situation in Donbas.

In fact, it is not about peace, but about fixing the line of pressure.

Amid diplomatic maneuvers, the situation in the rear remains critical. The mayor of Kyiv, Vitaliy Klitschko, warned of a high probability of continued Russian attacks on the capital’s energy infrastructure. Residents of the city were urged to stock up on water and medicine. In many residential buildings, heating is still absent, and the supply of electricity across the country remains extremely limited.

This tactic does not change. Moscow is buying time while simultaneously increasing pressure on the civilian population. Territories are offered in exchange for stopping shelling, but the shelling itself is used as a negotiation tool. People are deliberately starved of warmth, turning a humanitarian catastrophe into an argument at the table.

The danger here is systemic. Even in the case of concessions from Ukraine, the Kremlin retains space for new demands: additional areas, legal recognition, special statuses, “temporary” formulas. The structure is flexible, the demands are expandable, and the obligations are irreversible only for one side.

The problem is deeper than a specific round of negotiations. In Moscow, there are people for whom lies are a working tool, and terror is an acceptable method of politics. And the key question today is not what they demand, but why they still do not receive a proportional and tough response from Ukraine’s allies.

Without this, any dialogue turns into a postponement of the next strike.

NAnews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency