Germany says doubts Russia will compromise on Ukraine in UAE talks

BERLIN: Germany expressed doubts that Moscow would be willing to compromise to end the Ukraine war at talks to be held in the UAE Friday between Ukrainian, Russian and US envoys.

“There are still major questions about the extent to which Russia is really willing to move away from its maximalist demands,” government spokesman Steffen Meyer said, shortly after Moscow made clear it was still demanding that Kyiv withdraw from the Donbas.

He also said any agreement reached “must be geared toward achieving long-term and sustainable peace.

“Nothing would be gained if a peace agreement ultimately only gave Russia some breathing space, and allowed it to launch new attacks at a later date.

“That is why we have focused very strongly on the issue of security guarantees.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday he had agreed during a meeting with US President Donald Trump in Davos on what post-war US security guarantees for Ukraine would look like, without giving details.

Putin agrees next steps with US envoys but Kremlin says territory is key

Meyer also said that, while Germany and other EU members were not directly participating in Friday’s negotiations, Berlin was still “very closely involved politically through the talks of the past weeks and the ongoing exchange”.

The spokesman did not reply when asked by AFP to comment on Zelensky’s criticism in a fiery address at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the EU lacked “political will” in countering Russian leader Vladimir Putin.