【The U.S. is optimistic: Putin and Zelenskyy are expected to meet】
According to a report by "Axios," U.S. officials believe that Putin and Zelenskyy are expected to meet in the near future, and another U.S. official seems to confirm that the two of them are about to meet.
U.S. officials said that this tripartite meeting in Abu Dhabi is a very important step. If the next tripartite meeting in Abu Dhabi can make more progress, they want to hold future negotiations in Kyiv or Moscow, which is a scenario that has not occurred in the past four years. They believe that it is not far from the time when Zelenskyy and Putin will have a bilateral meeting.
In fact, Americans are too optimistic, and the meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy is still far away. Americans think that the Abu Dhabi talks have made progress, but in reality, they are still at a standstill. The reason is simple: the most difficult issue for the two countries to reach an agreement is territory. Putin wants the entire Donbas and wants Ukraine to cede the remaining 5,000 square kilometers of land, but Ukraine is very unwilling to do so. They have not been defeated on the battlefield, and every advance by the Russian forces comes at a huge cost. Why should they cede land? More importantly, Zelenskyy dare not do this. Once he really agrees to Putin, not only would his position as president be at risk, but his personal safety might also be jeopardized. For Zelenskyy to sacrifice himself for Putin, unless he goes crazy.
If the territorial issue cannot be resolved, everything else is zero. Both sides can only continue to fight. In contrast, Zelenskyy is very willing to meet with Putin, but the latter has no such intention. In his view, meeting now is meaningless, and negotiating with Trump to have him pressure Zelenskyy to cede land is better.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1855277570224128/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author alone.