Biden Admin Pressures Ukraine to Signal Openness to Talks with Putin: Report

The Biden administration has asked the Ukrainian government to show that it is willing to negotiate with Russian president Vladimir Putin, the Washington Post reported. Kyiv has argued, and still maintains, that there’s nothing to discuss under Putin, who has refused to undertake good-faith peace talks.

The discussions revealed in the report are not a response to congressional progressives’ call for the U.S. to push for peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow. The Post reports that the push is intended to prevent U.S. allies from lessening their support of the Ukrainian war effort:

The request by American officials is not aimed at pushing Ukraine to the negotiating table, these people said. Rather, they called it a calculated attempt to ensure the government in Kyiv maintains the support of other nations facing constituencies wary of fueling a war for many years to come. . . .

While U.S. officials share their Ukrainian counterparts’ assessment that Putin, for now, isn’t serious about negotiations, they acknowledge that President Volodymyr Zelensky’s ban on talks with him has generated concern in parts of Europe, Africa and Latin America, where the war’s disruptive effects on the availability and cost of food and fuel are felt most sharply.

“Ukraine fatigue is a real thing for some of our partners,” said one U.S. official who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations between Washington and Kyiv.

The news comes as Ukrainian forces prepare a push to retake the city of Kherson, a battle that Kyiv is widely expected to win.

In a tweet today, Mykhailo Podolyak, a Zelensky adviser, reiterated Kyiv’s objections to speaking with Putin, who he said is “obviously not ready” for talks. “Ukraine has never refused to negotiate. Our negotiating position is known and open,” he wrote.